#TakeMeToOlympus

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #22

We're continuing on the journey. I've got a couple of more chapters written out and I am super excited to post them.

Things are heating up (and GOSH I can't wait until you see what I have in store for the future. Who do you think is coming next? ^-^) and the deities are cracking apart.

This is one of my favorite cracks ngl.

The First Chapter

Previous Chapter

Next chapter (coming soon)

//

Bones of the Earth and Shoreline Shimmers

Hades only joined Harley on her little shopping trip to give Persephone some time with Julia, and he found himself wandering the more seclusive corners of the malls. Most people seemed content to avoid him anyway, and that suited him fine.

The night before kept replaying in his mind, the chaotic power that resided in this world filling him as he worked the ritual. He’d been obsessed with getting Persephone back - it had almost consumed him. 

Hera had been right, after all.

He clenched his fist, feeling the bones and muscles ripple with barely contained chaotic power. Shadows seemed to coalesce at his fingertips before dripping onto the white marbled floor.

Perhaps he should have listened to the Oracle. 

Hades stared at the splotches. They writhed for a moment before they sunk into the white stone, dissonant whispers fading from his head as they did. 

And yet. 

Something about what Miranda had said to them lingered. He went further into the empty corridor to the side, smiling slightly at the flickering light above him. 

You will face the inevitable, and you, in all your glory of being the Gods of Old, will fall.

More shadows dripped from his fingers, running down his hands in thin streams as he felt darkness coalesce within him. A whiplash of pain surged through him, thorns digging into his insides, and when his smile turned into a grin, he knew his teeth were coated in darkness. 

Persephone had cracked. 

He could feel the dark he shared with her try to escape through every orifice, his skin turning black with the oily substance that ran in rivulets down his neck, arms, legs. 

A puddle formed beneath him.

With each drop, he focused on the heroes of the past. Of how they mustered when the odds seemed against them - of their courage in the face of deities much stronger than themselves.

Perfection kills Gods.

Then let him become mortal.

A croaking laugh made its way out his throat, and with each second he laughed, the shadows disappeared from his voice. As if he himself became the sun, the shadows withdrew from him. 

Searing pain filled his body, and he fell to the ground, his knees hitting the stone with a crack. His body heated until it felt like he was being burned alive, the ice in his veins turning liquid and escaping through his pores. 

Hades clutched at the ground, laughing through clenched teeth as the unimaginable pain coursed through him, each second longer than the next.

He had chosen this. 

This was what they had all chosen by making this their home.

Breathing hard through his nose, Hades opened his eyes. Only to immediately close them again as he was blinded. Shuffling onto his back, he cracked them open again, marveling at his hands.

His alabaster skin had cracked, revealing glistening golds and silvers on his hands. As he twisted his arms, the flickering light above created dancing reflections of the walls around him, bathing them in soft light.

He fought to get up, ignoring the ache that permeated his body. Then he lifted up his shirt, wonder lighting up his eyes at the way his skin split apart to reveal shimmering greens, blues, reds and purples - his skin had become living gemstones.

Wait until he showed this to Persephone. She would marvel at him, and perhaps she could even make a flower after the artpiece that his skin had become.

“Oh no,” he said, a hand coming up to wipe his grin off his face. He had forgotten about Persephone. And he’d felt her - had felt the crack in his darkness as she wilted away, and-

“Damn straight ‘oh no’,” came the unbidden response from the mouth of the corridor. “What are you even doing in here? And what are those - did you buy a disco ball?”

Harley stopped dead in her tracks when she neared him, her eyes becoming the size of saucers. But it didn’t last long.

“Holy shit what is this?” She said as she rushed forward, holding out a hand. Hades obliged and gave her his own colorful one, and her featherlight fingers ran up and down his newfound skin. “You too, huh?”

At that Hades cocked his head, his eyes roaming over Aphrodite. They were standing just within the shadows, and yet too far away from Hades to properly see. 

“I guess we are nothing more than gilded porcelain in the end,” he remarked, all the while drawing up his shirt for Harley to see his colorful stomach.

“And yet, when we break, our cracks are lined with gold,” Aphrodite said as they stepped forward, putting on display the thorns and white roses that had melded with their skin like intricate tattoos. They held their head high, and Hades gave them a small smile. 

A warmer smile than he’d ever managed before around anyone but Persephone.

Aphrodite returned it, their teeth glittering in the golden light of the topaz that reflected onto them. 

“You get yourselves into just as many messes as I do,” Harley said, taking a step back and looking from one cracked deity to the other. “Now, let’s find the last lost duckling and get home.”

Poseidon had been pacing through the mall for far too long, each round becoming more agitated as he glanced at the displays behind the windows. Televisions displayed news channels where prim people were discussing who would take the blame for the most recent oil spill, horrific images of the tonnes of black liquid that tainted the oceans. 

He looked away from the dead eyes of the fish that lay on their side. He had left so many brothers and sisters of the sea behind in the past. There was no doubt - he hadn’t been able to contact any of them since he had arrived here.

The nymphs and water sprites and other magnificent creatures had perished to the greed of the human race that had evolved as they were unchecked by the gods.

Clenching his hands, he closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, trying to force the images of death and decay and pure artificial wrongness out of his mind. The ocean as he knew it had perished - and whichever creatures remained were dying at an alarming rate, all thanks to people who would never feel the anger of the sea upon their own bodies, instead sending workers to do their dirty deeds. 

A frustrated sound managed to worm its way through his teeth, the sound akin to the magnificent conch he had left at his home beneath the sea.

“Well, you’re a cheery sight.” 

Poseidon didn’t bother turning around - the ever changing voice was enough to alert him to Hermes, not to mention the anticipation of gossip that seemed to hang in the air.

“Why would I be?” He didn’t bother unclenching his hands as he whirled, finding Hermes leaning against a nearby wall. “They have enough pleasure as they rejoice in the destruction of a miracle older than life itself.”

Hermes snorted, never moving from his position even as his eyes twinkled. “You were content to turn a blind eye to the struggles of Olympus for millennia. I can hardly imagine that this is much different.”

Fury boiled up within him like a raging sea, a frothing wild creature that threatened to spill from his every cell. “You dare compare the two? There is a difference between the ecosystem upon which the world hinges, and petty squabbles among people who should know better.”

The light in Hermes’ eyes turned sharp, the colors upon his body shifting in sharper increments that had mortals around them scurrying a little faster away from their part of the mall, even if they seemed confused as to what was triggering their fear. 

“Do not act like you are above the rest of us. Do I need to mention Medusa? Minos? Demeter? The horrific things you put others through for your own amusement have put you far below the mortals you would readily call the scum of the Earth.” Hermes paused as if savoring the words before sending Poseidon a wicked smile that held no amusement. “You are in the mud along with the rest of us.”

If Poseidon had had the lightning bolt that Zeus was so fond of throwing around, he’d have obliterated Hermes immediately. Hell, if he had been at his full strength, he’d have flooded the mall with a tsunami that would tear Hermes apart.

As it was, however, he managed to step into Hermes' personal space, their noses almost touching as the nearby fountain flowed over, the water spilling onto the floor.

“Don’t presume to match my misdeeds to the rest of yours. Mine have been harmless pranks or targeted mortals, never with the intention of harming my family.” Poseidon’s snarl reverberated within his chest, nearly rattling his teeth as it passed through his lips.

Hermes scoffed. “Funny you should say that, because I seem to remember a rebellion against the big guy.” He pointed upwards, towards where Olympus would have been, would they have been home instead of this hellish nightmare. “And the atrocities you committed against the women you call family - and those who had been your loyal followers or even just the worshippers of other gods. Those women would call it the most atrocious behavior of all.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Poseidon said, his eyes flickering as he recalled the pain in their eyes.

“I know what they whisper to each other when darkness falls. It’s my job to know.” Hermes’ eyes were spinning in a kaleidoscope now, and Poseidon had to look away from the dizzying colors. “I know that it is a miracle that Julia and Harley are even tolerating being near most of us, and I know that you caused irreparable damage to the psyches of those poor women.” 

Hermes leaned further in, tilting his head to whisper in Poseidon’s ear. “The world will go on, the seas will restore themselves and the nymphs will return, stronger than ever before. But I wonder whether they refuse your call because they know that your power has diminished over them - because they know that you cannot harm them anymore.”

“I never wished to harm anyone,” Poseidon said, feeling the tips of Hermes’ fingers dig into his back. 

“Lies,” the God of Messages hissed and pain shot up through Poseidon from Hermes’ splayed fingers. “We have not been worthy of divinity for a long while - you have not been worthy. But it is time that you pay your victims the respect they deserve and then become better.

“And while you may not see it, people of this world are fighting for it - there are those who clean the lakes and beaches and the organizations scouring the seas for plastic.” Hermes dragged Poseidon back to the screens that rather than dead fish now showed people scrambling to remove the oil from the sea. “The sea is strong; it will endure. But humanity needs people who understand the deep dark abyss that covers this world - people who will willingly dedicate their lives to educate and improve upon their own lives and the lives of others as they clean up the ocean, piece after painstaking piece.”

Poseidon seemed to freeze for a moment, thoughts churning within his mind. Then he tentatively spoke, the words slow as they fell from his lips. “I have not been worthy of the title of protector. Do you think that it is too late for us to change?”

Hermes did not acknowledge the words that went unsaid.

Do you think it is too late for me?

Instead he forced his lips upwards in jagged smile that was more trickery than treatment, yet Poseidon felt something uncurl from within him at the breeze that carried the messenger God’s words. 

“You are as wild and wicked as the ever changing tide, never forget that. But you must learn to bring calm seas rather than storms to the people around you.”

As Poseidon blinked, the last light of Hermes disappeared in that gust of wind. The thing uncurling within him turned into a roiling sea, freezing and scalding his insides at the same time as he forced himself to relive the memories that he had attempted to banish to the back of his mind as ill-received pranks. 

Pain snapped at his bones and muscles, their strength eroding under the unrelenting onslaught as Poseidon fell to his knees clutching his sides. Water poured from his eyes as he allowed himself to feel the pain that they had felt, invisible hands leaving marks in all shades of ocean blue upon his body, staining his skin in the colors of the sea. 

The pain pulsed through him, wave after wave from the tips of his fingers and all the way through his neck as the tears sunk into his skin, leaving blue lines of brilliant blue. 

Poseidon stayed silent on the floor throughout it all, letting the pain wash over him. Crawling towards it rather than shying away from it, he allowed himself to become used to the ebb and flow of it, a reminder of the past that he had wanted to ignore for so long.

A past that he would work to fix and compensate for, in any way that he could.

Even if that meant he would never quite be done atoning for the things he’d done. 

“There’s the last one,” Harley said from somewhere behind him. It was as if he was listening through the roar of a raging ocean, her voice too far away to really reach him. “Come on home, little duckling, we’ve got a family to fix.”

A snort from Aphrodite, their voice hollow yet somehow infinitely lighter as they spoke. “You can’t fix what isn’t broken.”

“Reshape then,” Hades replied, baritone voice devoid of the crawling shadows that infested his every move. “We can make something new in its stead.”

It wasn’t until he was standing right in front of him that Poseidon felt the urge to raise his gaze. It wasn’t until that hand covered in the finest of marbling minerals was held outstretched towards him that he dared release the iron grip he held over the roiling sea that churned in his chest, threatening to spill out through his eyes. 

“None of us have been kind, brother.” Dark eyes met seafoam blue, and Poseidon reached out with shaking fingers and grasped Hades’ hand. “But it’s never too late to learn.” 

It was a warm and solid grip that Poseidon met in Hades, the unshakable, undiluted hope of the deity of the dead even as he cracked apart touched something deep within the chest of the god of the seas, and green tears sent crystalline traces down his cheeks as he allowed himself to hold on to his brother for long enough that the world around them fell away.

“A-hem,” came the too fake cough to even be considered an attempt at a fake cough from Aphrodite. 

Then there was the sound of a scuffle and an ‘ow’, and Poseidon allowed himself to smile, just a bit. 

To his surprise, Hades lips quirked upwards, his eyes glittering with the riches of the world. 

For the first time, Poseidon found himself not caring whether they returned to their own time or not.

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #18

Hello everyone!

We're getting closer to the end. I think I've got between 10 and 15 chapters left. And yes, I do realize that this is almost as many as we have been through already, but that's fine.

I've got some fun stuff planned! And a pretty epic end, if everything comes together the way I want it to.

But these rascals tend to go their own ways, so who really knows!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter - things are getting a little bit more heated.

TW // mentions of suicide, blood, mentions of sacrifice, bait

The First Chapter

Previous chapter

Next chapter

//

For desperate measures comes desperate solutions

By now, there were a few things that were beginning to tire Julia.

One was the fact that the Gods and Goddesses simply thought that because they were more powerful, they could treat them as they pleased. With no regards for freedom or anything else of the sort.

Another was to be called different things. Her name was Julia, not lamb, not bird, and definitely not mortal. It was derogatory and she would absolutely love to put a stop to it, somehow.

The only problem was tiring thing number one which effectively rendered her protests useless because she would never be able to follow up on them anyway. Moreover, Hera was also proving herself to be the absolute worst ally that she could have ever hoped for.

Granted, she had done something very stupid by simply charging into a ritual.

But there was no need to look too much into that.

Because here she was, face to face with a thing that could easily be a monster of nightmares. There was something so entirely inhuman in the way that both Hermes and Hades moved, secure inside their little bubble even while Julia was utterly exposed on the other side of it.

And the only thing that really went through her was that she was becoming really tired of being a ragdoll without any other power than diplomacy, and she was kind of in the mood for something that was completely insane.

If this was going to be her last seconds before she was sacrificed, then she was going to make the most out of them. Including having Hades step down from that gilded throne that he suddenly seemed to be standing on.

“I’d say you were better than this,” Julia said, getting up again now that the infernal voice wasn’t ringing in her ears. “I’d say that you had been so kind and calm and absolutely polite these last few months and I’d pretend that I knew you better than you knew yourself.

“I’d say that this wasn’t your doing and that - somehow, someway - you were being controlled by something.” She paused, laughed. A shrill sound that bounced off the wall of the warehouse. “And you probably are all of those things, at least a little bit. But from what I’ve seen from all of you Gods is that you can be ruthless in your approach to the world.”

She took a step closer. Then another one.

Stopping just a few arms lengths away from the outer layer of the bubble, she smiled at Hades once more, willing her eyes to glint with all of the confidence that she didn’t have in that moment.

“So go ahead. Take what you need and get your beloved back here.” All those mentions of Persephone - all of the love and dreamy Mcdreamy eyes that sent hearts fluttering in her throat every time. They would be the ones to doom her because she was now standing between him and that goal. “Let the God of the Dead become the God of Death.”

It sent him reeling back, something inside of him pulling back just enough for her to see the warm black eyes shine through. Then it was absorbed, overwhelmed by the power of the chant.

Which meant that Julia still had one ace up her sleeve.

“And I don’t even think that you could stop the ritual if you tried. It has overtaken you - has swallowed every part of you that you deemed worthy. That you deemed mortal.” Another flinch. Another victory. She just prayed that it would be enough to keep him occupied.

“Because there is only one sorceress who would ever be strong enough to get you out of its grip,” Julia was almost yelling now, darkness starting to whip past her, wind threatening to carry her voice away. “You left the Queen of Gods at my place, and you would never be good enough to stop this on your own.”

Take the bait. Take the bait. Take the bait.

The thing that was not entirely Hades growled, and a shadow slipped past them just on the edge of Julia’s vision. Julia smiled.

A fish on a hook. Even if that particular sword that she was wielding might turn out to be double sided.

She took a step back, slowly. Deliberately stumbling. She just needed him to-

There.

A flicker of movement as his hand reached for her, one foot almost lifting from the ground. She would need just a little bit more. And if there was something she knew, it was how to antagonize.

“How proud Persephone would be if she could see you now,” she said, sarcasm dripping off the words.

Julia barely had the chance to turn and start running as the angry God of the Dead leapt at her with a growl, his fingers snapping strands of her hair off her head. Her head rocked back for a moment, before she ripped herself free.

Hades let out a roar that most of all reminded her of Godzilla. On drugs and rampaging through the entirety of Tokyo.

Yeah, the odds didn’t exactly seem to be in her favor.

She pumped her legs a little faster, leaping over shadows that reached for her from the floor. Further, faster, sweat forming on her forehead as she ran for her life.

When she rounded some of the boxes, her feet skidding on the floor, she snuck in a glance at the creature that chased her.

Hades still wore that same smile, and he seemed to be running almost effortlessly, staying just a step behind her. Wispy talons of darkness formed around his hands and they scraped her back, drawing blood and making Julia grit her teeth against the searing pain that they caused.

He was toying with her.

All the while, she was out of breath already. Another slash, this time at one of her arms. This time, she couldn’t hold back her yelp as the pain took hold. A dark laugh was her response, sending chills down her arms as shadows caressed her legs from the floor.

This might have been her most stupid idea yet.

If nothing else, she could rest easy knowing that Hera was watching and probably laughing her ass off at the silly woman who was currently in the middle of a suicide mission.

If nothing else, she had someone who could tell her friends what had happened. Not that she was positive that Hera would show her that courtesy.

Another slash, this time at her shoulder.

Julia could feel her strength surging as pain was drowned out by the roaring adrenaline in her veins. An opening in the boxes was all she needed to leap over the smallest ones and-

A hand closed around her leg, holding her still as she crashed to the ground, her arms coming up to shield her head from knocking into the floor.

Goddamn that hurt.

A brief turn revealed a grinning God of the Dead, ready to claim his sacrifice.

“Not today,” Julia muttered as she hammered her other food into the hand that held her. She was met with another dark laugh. The hand didn’t even budge, instead it just held tighter - squeezing until she could feel her circulation cut off.

He was bent over, coming ever closer to her. Slowly.

Julia did the logical thing. She kicked him in the face.

His nose crunched beneath her shoes, and blue blood ran down his face. Hades licked his lips.

“Now that’s just disgusting,” Julia said, her nose wrinkling.

“I told you it was a bad idea,” came the reply from somewhere behind her.

Hades looked up, his eyes narrowing.

Julia twisted her neck towards the sound.

Just as a flash of light blinded her, and the whole warehouse went dark. Apparently the only thing that had kept it alight was the power of the ritual.

She took out her phone and clicked on the flashlight, first pointing it to Hades behind her.

The inhumanity of his eyes were disappearing and he shook his head, rubbing his eyes with one of his hands.

“Ow,” he said, looking at the blue blood that coated his talons.

Julia might have cheered a little bit. “Ow is right. And would you ever so kindly let go of my fucking leg. Please and thank you.”

Hades just blinked at her, and Julia jiggled her leg a little bit to prove her point. After which she was promptly let go of.

“Look who came to the rescue.” Julia got to her feet, taking care not to put too much weight on the foot that Hades had grabbed. What had the God done to it? “I seem to remember that you told me it was a dumb idea?”

Brushing herself off, she met Hera’s eyes. Besides her lay the prone form of Hermes who seemed to shimmer as he changed appearance.

“It provided me with an adequate distraction.” Hera pursed her lips, pointing to one of the runes to the floor. It was broken. “And the trick you performed might have been clever. For mortal standards, that is.”

Julia sighed, feeling the energy run out of her with each beat of her heart. From the pain that ran through her back, she might as well have been whipped. Her back was warm and sticky and burned.

“I hope one of you has healing magic, because I sure as hell deserve a little bit of healing after those talons.” She turned towards Hades, seeing the movement of Hera’s foot out the corner of her eyes. “What did you even do to me?”

But Hades didn’t seem to see her. Instead he dashed past her, arms waving and eyes wild.

“No,” he screamed.

And then Julia was blown off her feet as the chanting began again.

She landed on her arm, twisting it and screaming out in pain as the warehouse lit up again, this time brighter than before. No shadows clawed at her from the walls or the floor. Instead the whole building rumbled, clouds forming on the inside of it, wind ripping at their clothes.

No, she echoed inside her own head as she looked up.

The runes were glowing again, the bubble wall having come up to protect the chanter on the inside. Hera sent her a smile that was equal parts predator and equal parts maniacal glee.

“Did you really think that you would be able to control the ebbs and flows of magic in this world?” Pure power came with her voice, as if it was charging up as she spoke. As if the others had been children, but now the adult had stepped in. “You were always too soft-hearted for erratic magic, Hades. If you do not control it, it controls you.”

Julia started hobbling towards the protected sphere, stopping short when Hera pointed at her with a crooked finger.

“It was a valiant attempt before, mortal, but I am not soft like the God of the Dead. And I am not interested in your petty bait.” Hera laughed, filling the room up with thunder, perspiration dripping down the side of the walls. “I have stayed silent for far too long - I have let myself be trampled on and pushed into the mud. I have let the squabbles of others interfere with my work.

“I say: ‘no more’. Let him know what it feels like to be powerless in a strange world.”

And then the Queen of the Heavens cleaved a hole from this world and into the next.

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #17

This one is a banger! Julia confronts Hera (again but this time with more stakes, I promise), there are magical blankets galore, and bubbles everywhere??

Also never go close to a chanting Deity of any kind okay?

TW // horror elements, self harm, mention of sacrifice, blood, violence, chanting, spells.

The First Chapter Previous chapter Next chapter

//

Going toe to toe with a feral God

They had to make a quick pitstop. That was what Athena had told them, before they all ran into Julia’s apartment, because apparently they had no freaking clue as to where Hades had scampered off to in order to make some old cult ritual.

Just great.

The worst part might have been that all of the other Gods were there, which indicated a whole lot of chaos, especially when Yrene got into the fray with Ares.

She was literally baring her teeth at the God of war and she didn’t seem to care, clutching a hissing Orion to her chest. And yet, somehow, Julia was not at all surprised.

The only thing that did surprise her was the lack of embers that formed around Ares’ hands. Actually they were in his pockets, clearly balled up, if she judged by the sneer and growl and all out anger showing on his face.

And why were there so many bubbles floating around this place?

Weaving through another storm of the damn things, Julia finally caught up with Athena who had simply ignored the full-blown chaos that had already seemed to be going strong even before they entered the apartment.

She couldn’t leave them all alone together for five measly hours. That was all that she got from this. That they were a bunch of children who would apparently need babying at all times lest they end up destroying her apartment.

Olivia and Kenneth weren’t exactly helping, either, the former drifting towards Aphrodite and the latter seemingly lost among the chaos. Julia quickly reached out and pulled Kenneth through the bubbles, trying to retain the most meagre part of her composure as she did so.

Because otherwise, she might just be the one to blow up.

Hera was very visibly and also very pointedly ignoring a fuming Athena as she - wait was she knitting now? The Queen of Gods had seemingly become bored with needling away at old materials and was now in the process of knitting what looked to be an entire blanket.

She was halfway done already, a pile of finished blanket laying around her. Well, she’d been busy, so much was clear.

“You know what they are doing.” There was nothing anywhere near resembling a question in the remark from Athena, and the secretive smile that Hera sent her way was enough to send Julia’s blood boiling. “You know where they are.”

“Yes to the first, no to the second. I have my ideas, but they are not necessarily accurate,” Hera replied, her face never moving entirely from her work. As if they were not important enough for her to stop, even for a moment.

“Then I suggest you tell us about your ideas,” Athena said, her voice colder than Julia had ever heard. Even when they talked about Zeus earlier, there hadn’t been so much danger hidden beneath words. “Lest we extract the information in other ways.”

But Hera’s eyes merely glinted with amusement at the threat, even if she put aside her now finished blanket. Julia wondered how the hell that had happened over the span of those thirty seconds they’d been talking.

“Watch your tongue, child. You don’t know what old monsters you will dredge up with your careless words.” A flick of her tongue, licking her lips in an entirely predatory way. She glanced at Julia. “Some of us might not survive such an encounter.”

Julia’s hands turned clammy, and spiders skittered up and down her spine, lingering on the nape of her neck. But this would come down to a fight between the Gods whether she let them fight it out now or later, and she’d rather like to minimize the casualties if Zeus stopped by.

“I get that you’re stubborn and powerful and that your power has been ripped from your wicked hands so many times that you now do your utmost to cling onto it,” Julia said before Athena could continue a conversation of ill hidden threats. The words tumbled out of her mouth faster than any other time before - she only had one chance while Hera still wore that stunned face, and she was going to use it.

“I truly do understand that. But the thing is that if Hades succeeds in getting that portal up and running or whatever other shit he’s got going on, then we might as well call it quits because your husband will be trampling through.” She paused, drew in a breath, and then continued on rambling as fast as was humanly possible. “And I get that you’re the Goddess of Marriage and all that but it really wouldn’t be nice for your business if we had an actual God inspiring infidelity among humans.”

“Not to mention the murder, but that’s a whole other thing, I guess.” Kenneth chimed in.

A spark went off in Hera’s eyes, and for one terrible second, she rose from her chair and oh God why had Julia ever thought she could intimidate this terrifying creature of a woman.

So she took a step back.

Then another as Hera’s smile grew wider, fury sparkling in her dark eyes. A fire that burned and burned and burned and Julia had no illusions about whether or not she would get singed if she let it get too close.

The room seemed to darken as if clouds had moved into their space, crowding around Hera. Cracks echoed throughout the apartment and all bickering stopped. Even the infernal bubbles seemed to disappear, all of them with a collective pop.

The cackle that rose from Hera’s mouth was that of a mad woman, her fingernails turning longer, sharper, as she grew in height. Her back became crooked and warped, and Julia remembered again exactly what it felt like to be a human amongst Gods.

Besides her, Athena held her back strong, but the quiver of her lips and the unnatural stillness of her hands and chest had Julia holding her breath and taking another step back.

Hera stalked forwards, a predator after its prey. “Come now, little thing. Don’t be scared,” she said, another broken cackle forcing its way past her teeth. And even those seemed to grow longer, sharper. “You have been playing a master of Gods. The puppet trying to steer the puppeteers. Why stop now?

“Oh, I am sorry, did I scare you, little puppet?” She practically cooed, her hand somehow reaching Julia’s face, claws tracing lines down the side of her cheeks. “It has been fun, to a degree. But as all mortals, you deserve a lesson. And I do love to teach them.”

Hera pulled her hand behind her head, readying for a strike with her razor sharp claws. One that would likely take out one of Julia’s eyes. Tears formed in her eyes at the anticipation of the pain, fear clouding her vision.

Perhaps it was also fear that made her smile. That made her look into the face of what could certainly be Death herself and straighten her back, pulling her shoulders back and giving her best impression of a wink.

“Goddess almighty,” Julia said, choosing what could very well be her last words before her tongue was ripped out. “How could I be the puppet when I was never bound.”

Hera blinked. That was good enough.

It would have to be enough.

Julia pressed on. “But you, on the other hand. Bound by duty. Bound by the Fates. Bound by the one who was supposed to be your significant other.” Each sentence seemed to work like a slap in the face, the power of the hand falling, if just slightly.

“But most of all - bound by yourself.”

It all went by so fast. A growl. The flaring of pain around the edge of her cheekbones as talons dug in, aiming for flesh and blood. Pain, pain, pain that exploded for a moment as Julia staggered back by the force of the blow.

And then the nails were gone, pulled away by something impossibly stronger, tearing at themselves instead of at others. Julia clutched her hand to the side of her face, feeling at the shallow cuts there.

Glancing up was all it took for her to realize it.

Nobody had saved her.

And Hera was whirling in the room, claws going to work on herself - a deadly dance of self harm that didn’t seem to take an ending anytime soon. As if the Goddess was scraping off every single part of her that was bound to others, pulling each hand away from her more bloody than it had been the moment before.

It was like a scene from the exorcist.

And if she knew any horror movies, they’d still end up dead if they didn’t get Hera to stop. Besides, the shrieking and the pure pain the Goddess radiated made Julia’s heart crack.

“Somebody hold her down,” Julia said, going in closer to Hera as Poseidon and Aphrodite swooped in out of nowhere, pinning Hera to the wall. Julia tried to catch her eyes, but they were flickering every which way, screaming murder.

“Hera, listen to me,” Julia hissed, getting as close to Hera’s ear as possible without accidentally ending up as minced meat. “You might have been bound. But you never have to be so again. You have got to understand that you are ultimately the only one that can help yourself. And that you will be stuck in the role you have created for yourself until you start doing something else.”

The carpets in the corner began to move. Julia got a clance of them as they whipped into the air and flew towards her, Poseidon and Aphrodite letting go of their holds and stepping back quicker than Julia ever could.

Which meant that she was stuck with Hera and a projectile made of blanket. This was honestly not the weirdest thing that had happened, and she was beginning to question her sanity much.

The Gods better pay for therapy when they get home, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to deal with anymore of their shit ever again. She didn’t care if they just needed to talk, she was done with the celestial and the deities and whatever else.

In the last second, the blankets branched out, covering Hera and Julia completely as they descended. Julia just got the view of their glowing symbols and the manic grin that Hera was wearing before her vision went dark.

The worst part of this whole ordeal? The blankets were fucking itchy. Just her luck to be suffocated by a suicidal Goddess and her itchy blankets.

But lo and behold, the world came back into view. Vertigo crawled into Julia’s stomach, settling as nausea. She groaned into the itchy thing beneath her, hiding from the light.

“You need to get up fast,” Hera hissed, one of her clawed hands pulling at Julia’s arm. Julia decided that it would be better to follow the crazy Goddess than turn against her, so she opens her eyes, squinting at the light as she is pulled to her feet.

They seemed to be in some sort of warehouse, and there was a little cynical voice in the back of her head that laughed at that. Of course a ritual to bring back the full might of the Greek Pantheon to the world would take place in an abandoned warehouse.

The universe was just throwing clichees at her now, and Julia was really not appreciating the humor of the situation.

Especially as she looked at Hera, coated in her own blood but with no gashes or wounds to show for it. One of the deeper wounds seemed to close in front of her eyes, leaving only smooth skin beneath the bloody ensemble.

“You can heal yourself?” Julia said, gaping at Hera, even as she shushed at her. Amending, Julia’s voice turned into a hiss. “It was all for show? All that craziness in the apartment.”

Hera flashed her a sly smile in return, but there was something in her eyes, in her stance, that made Julia think that maybe it wasn’t all for show. A darkness that crept into the woman, hurt tainting that smile of hers.

“What did you think of my little performance? I think it was quite realistic.”

“You almost took off my head!” Julia whisper-yelled as they crouched behind the remnants of what was in the warehouse, moving closer to wherever they were supposed to be going.

“I didn’t. I would know how to control myself,” Hera said, puffing out her chest. There was also a warning in there - that if next time, she didn’t feel like controlling herself, it would end badly for Julia. “Besides, I needed an excuse to get us out of there without the others. We couldn’t risk bringing them all.”

“What is even up with that?” Julia said, directing their conversation into safer territories. She scratched at her neck, ripping her arm loose from Hera’s grip, but still following behind her. “I’ve never heard of teleportation by blanket. To be honest, I’m not a fan. Perhaps you should reconsider the materials that you-”

“Shh,” Hera hissed, cutting her off mid sentence. She pointed over the stack of whatever they were hiding behind, and Julia craned her neck.

The large hall looked like something straight out from Supernatural, with all of the sigils painted into the floor with white. Or maybe they had just copied every cliche ever and actually poured salt onto the floor.

Nevertheless, it was terrifying to look at. Especially when you added in the chanting that was coming from both Hermes and Hades, shadows writhing on the walls in beat to every word, as if they were dancing to songs that could not be heard by living ears.

Another thing taken straight out of a work of fiction. Julia was beginning to wonder whether she should contact Netflix, because she was pretty sure somebody would watch something like this.

“Let’s go talk to them,” she said, already getting up when Hera yanked on her arm. Hard.

“You cannot simply walk over there. They are beyond reason at the moment,” she whispered, glaring at Julia as if she had just offended her grandmother or something.

“You were beyond reason, too,” Julia whispered back, shifting in her crouched position.

After this, she reminded herself, she would sign up for yoga. Her body deserved some healthy attention after this whole mess and her joints were already screaming in protest at just sitting here for five seconds.

Shirking exercise might not have been the most genius of ideas, now that she was looking back on the last few months.

Hera was already ranting, coming up with whispered explanations of the differences between the two situations. Of the two, Julia would prefer Hades every time.

So she slipped out from behind the crates before Hera had the opportunity to snatch her back, practically sprinting to the Gods in the middle of the room. The shadows seemed to reach for her, this time almost leaping off the walls as they did, and she felt whispers of touches sliding over her skin.

Creepy, yes. But also harmless for the moment. Which was enough encouragement for her to keep on running, going directly for Hades. If she could just get over there and reason with him, they would be able to clear this up in no time, and they could all go home and sleep.

Hopefully never ever getting into anything of this kind ever again, thank you very much.

She ran on, getting closer and closer, and in a few moments she would be there. Close enough to actually talk to the God - or to tackle him out of his stupor or whatever was needed.

The only problem was that she never actually got to reach him, instead running into an invisible wall in front of her. Tumbling back, her body twisting into all kinds of shapes that hurt while sore areas sprung up as she rolled across the floor.

Of course there would be an invisible force field around the Gods chanting in the middle of the room. And of course she wouldn’t have been smart enough to think of the possibility beforehand, and thus simply fling herself into it head-on.

She would have continued her ranting in her head as she got up, gritting her teeth against the pain that now peppered her limbs, a trace of blood running down her cheek from the gash earlier.

Would have continued if it wasn’t for the fact that the room had suddenly become much, much colder and completely silent.

The chanting had stopped.

In front of her, Hades twisted, a grin that somehow exposed all of his teeth at the same time directed towards her. It would have put the Joker to shame, even.

He let out a throaty laugh, nothing like anything she had ever heard come out of his mouth before and cast out his hand. A mockery of a host bidding his guests welcome.

“I was beginning to fear that all we were missing was a sacrifice,” he said, darkness ebbing and flowing from his voice. It sent her to her knees, chills running up and down her spine as she tried to block out the sound. “But here you are, little lamb.”

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #20

It's been a while, but I am pleased to say that I am ready and fired up to go! I've got a few chapters planned out, and you will soon see the next problem that our favorite Greek Gods stand against.

Poor Julia xD

On the home front, I've been through a bit of a burnout, so updates will be slower the next few months. Worry not, though, I will finish this story and you will find out where Julia and the others end up.

When that's said and done, have fun reading chapter 20!

The First Chapter

Previous Chapter

Next chapter

//

When the cracks start showing

Julia barely remembered the trip back to the apartment. And at this point, she wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d been drugged because no sane person would ever let the same deities that moments before had tried to kill her into their home.

Stepping through the door had her immediately regret the decision to come back. Hermes seemed to have filled the other deities in, and their eyes went to her torn clothes and the dried blood that was the only remnant of the ritual.

The silence was deafening.

Until Orion leapt into her arms, meowing as he headbutted her. With that, the spell seemed to be broken and the deities rushed forwards, all of them yelling comforting things and berating Hades.

“Yes, I am ok. Well, as okay as you can be after a traumatic run-in with the God of the Dead.” She said, the words leaving her in a rush. Orion hissed, overwhelmed by the amount of people. “We’ve got bigger fish to fry, though.”

Poseidon wrinkled his nose in disgust. “You monsters have already overfished the seas - can’t you just leave the poor, majestic creatures alone?”

“It’s a saying,” Julia said, pushing past the deities while clutching Orion close to her chest. “Besides, I’m not the one who just initiated the end of days.”

A beat of silence before Athena’s hands thrummed against the kitchen table. “Earlier than I had anticipated …” She said, trailing off.

Hera had storms of lightning in her eyes when she whirled to the woman. “You knew and you didn’t think to let the rest of us know? How very typical of you, Athena.”

The biting tone seemed to roll right off Athena, and instead she turned to the rest of the deities. “You’ve all felt it by now. Well, perhaps with the exception of Persephone. The cracks are already forming in the foundations of our very beings.”

Poseidon snorted, waving his hand dismissively. “I haven’t felt a thing. I’m as ready to set the waters in motion as I’ve always been.”

“And yet,” Aphrodite mused, pointing their finger at his chest. “You have come to be more dreary than ever before. Has it proved to be too little - one God against the big bad world?”

Poseidon bristled, but Athena went straight for Aphrodite. “And you. Who’s heard of a deity of love that loves themselves more than anyone else. You’re supposed to spread it.”

“I am.” Aphrodite crossed their arms. “There’s just not a lot of love in this world.”

“Lies,” Hera hissed.

“And you’re one to talk?” The deity of love continued, baring their teeth in a snarl. “You’re supposed to be the goddess of family - of marriage. Yet your own is in shambles.”

“I have tried time and time again to bring us together, but there is always someone who’s petty, who’s malicious, who wishes nothing but spite and decay on the rest.” Hera almost spat out the words one for one, before she whirled on Hermes who had been sneaking out the door behind them. “See, this is what I’m talking about. You can never just face the problems and work them out. Cowards and monsters, all of you.”

Hermes' whole body seemed to darken with anger, his skin tone turning a devilish red. “I’m the one first out the door, you say? It’s my job. That is the only thing I do - I am the messenger of the world. And just because the rest of you have given up, doesn’t mean that I have.” He pointed his finger at Hera, his face never one betraying the emotions that the rest of his body showed. “You call yourself the Queen of Gods, but you’re nothing more than a mere puppet. We all are. We are at the whims of the Fates.”

“You know what?” Julia slammed the nearest book onto the ground, the sound granting her the attention of all of the deities. “You are acting like a bunch of children. You’ve been like this since the start when we first arrived, blaming your troubles on each other.”

Several of the deities opened their mouths but Julia held up her hand.

“I’ve had enough of it. You want to act like children, fine. Then let me spell it out for you.” She paused and took a deep breath. “You aren’t controlled or forced into doing anything. Everything that you are blaming each other for is because you have built a family that is conniving and manipulative rather than supporting and loving. And don’t even get me started on the Fates.

“The Oracle has told me straight up that you always made your own choices. And it sure as hell sounded like she had gone through that conversation with you all more than once. Why the hell did you not listen? Sure, it’s easier to believe that there’s some higher power but even mortals have to live without Gods.”

Julia paused, wetting her lips before hammering her point home. “Why don’t you?”

At the utter silence in the wake of her speech, she turned on her heel. “Now excuse me while I go to bed. I’ve had a terrible day. Good night.”

Orion ran in after her, and she locked the door before slumping against it. The cat clambered onto her lap before curling up and purring. And although their voices were muffled, she could still hear the deities bickering through the door.

“She’s right. We need to find a way to work together. If Kronos is coming back, we can’t bicker amongst ourselves. A force with no trust will always lose the war.” As Hades spoke, the shadows crawled through the door, casting clawed silhouettes on Julia’s walls. She closed her eyes, listening to Orion’s purr instead.

“That’s rich coming from you, old man,” the harsh laugh that Ares gave sent chills down her spine, and she clutched Orion a little tighter. Orion returned the favor by nibbling on her fingers, and she immediately stopped squeezing. “You’ve never seen war, and you try to teach me? But even more so, you were never exactly one for sticking together with the rest of us. No, you’ve always been content with spiriting away that little wife of yours while the rest of us freeze to death.”

Persephone’s voice had a promise of violence behind it when she spoke, as if the sound itself was a knife’s edge. “Watch your tongue, Ares. You are not the only one who knows war.”

A wave of exhaustion welled over Julia, and she had to fight to stay upright against the door.

“Oh no, but I’m the one who had to clean up your messes. Whenever someone doesn’t like the other, what do you do? You make the mortals wage war, because that is the best way to solve conflicts right?” The sneer in Ares’ voice was hiding something else, something old and painful. “But forget it. You’ll never know true war.”

She couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered whether it was the doing of one of the deities. Whether they didn’t want her to listen to their conversation.

She drifted off against the door to the sound of arguing from the next room.

Julia had a sinking feeling that this was an ambush.

The moment she had stepped out the door the next morning - at a very late time considering her usual sleeping habits - Persephone had been there, her plump legs beneath her as if she had heaped herself onto the couch. And in front of her, on the table, was a platter of all the breakfast foods that Julia could have ever dreamed of.

Not that she often dreamed of breakfast foods.

Okay, that was a lie.

“I realize that you must have been quite shaken up when we first met. And I didn’t do a particularly good job of helping lessen that,” Persephone said, one hand gesturing to the food. “I decided that I would remedy that.”

“Hades told you what happened, didn’t he?” Julia moved a chair to the opposite end of the table, poking the food while half expecting something magical to happen.

Nothing did.

Persephone’s lips quirked up in a smile. “He did indeed.”

Silence fell as Julia heaped food onto her plate, giving in to her growling stomach and the delightful smell of the food.

“I suppose you had a plan when you decided to corner me without anyone present,” she said. It was a rare sight to have no Deities in the apartment, and the quiet was a bit deafening.

Not that she would ever admit that to anyone.

“I can see how it would feel like that,” Persephone said, her shoulders tensing. “But I assure you that I have no intention of harming you, and frankly, Hades and I had some stern words about his treatment of you.”

Julia snorted into her apple juice, barely managing to collect herself to ask. “You didn’t approve?”

“I would think us above the feral instincts that Zeus seems so keen on sticking to.” Persephone’s frown looked positively dainty, as if she was merely a marble statue - meant to show picture-perfect emotion. “But I guess I was wrong.”

Julia shrugged. “People have done a lot crazier for love.”

“Humans usually break open a tear in your reality to reunite with a long-lost love while trying to sacrifice their friends?”

At this, Julia laughed. “No, I mean that murder isn’t even on the top ten of crazy love stories that I’ve heard. It might not be better, but at least he didn’t gaslight and abuse me beforehand.”

It was meant as a joke, but Persephone paled.

“People do that?” She asked, the words sputtering from her mouth.

“Well, he kidnapped you and forced you to stay with him for six months at a time, right?”

This time, Persephone chuckled, her curls bouncing as she shook her head. A fondness crept into her features, softening her face. “You have made him something he never was. I willingly left my mother. Demeter is a powerful Goddess, and while I still love her, the eternal winter that she unleashed on humanity had me fuming.

“So I made up my own little myth and spun it off as something sacred to the Underworld. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to push it too much, so I settled on six - six arils that I ate while the God of the Dead supposedly had me in his possession.” She gave Julia a wink before she shook her head again, as if still not quite believing that it had worked. “I don’t even understand why mother thought that I would ever only eat six of the pomegranate seeds. They’re far too delicious.”

“Why didn’t you just run? You could have hidden and stayed together.”

It was as if a cloud passed in front of Persephone’s face as she stood up and rubbed her eyes. “There are very few places that my mother wouldn’t have been able to reach us, and even then, we both had responsibilities.”

“Right.” Julia nodded. “The whole controlling the Underworld and the tide of the seasons.”

“Well …” Persephone said, her voice lowering. “More like we were the last defense against Kronos if he ever were to return. It seems that Hera thinks it’s inevitable, and now we aren’t there to stop it.”

Julia’s breath hitched as she walked to the kitchen. Persephone followed but Julia barely realized it. She needed to get something into her hands, something hot and soothing and-

A hot cup of coffee was on the table with words in cursive scrawled on a piece of paper next to it.

Had the kaleidoscope make it. Seeing the future pays off, sometimes.

She hadn't even needed to read it to know that it was from Miranda, the infuriating old crone’s handwriting so incredibly extravagant that the scribbled letter could only belong to her.

Julia had never been more creeped out and yet thankful for the oracle before as she grabbed her coffee. “I take it that Hermes made this?”

“Yes. He put in some kind of brown powder. It looked positively unappetizing.” Persephone wrinkled her nose.

Silence fell as Julia tried to gather her thoughts.

“So if-” she tried, lacking the words and massaging her temple with the hand not clutching the cup of coffee like a lifeboat. “If you are here then what happens to Kronos?”

“Before this whole incident, I would have thought that humanity would perish,” Persephone said, her fingers rubbing over her chin. “I cannot understand why that hasn’t happened yet.”

“Well, we’re like cockroaches in that sense,” Julia replied, a smile creeping to her lips.

“And Kronos is a boot.”

That prompted another beat of silence.

“I guess you don’t have to run or hide anymore,” Julia eventually said, her voice solemn. “Nobody will take you away from each other.”

It was the saddest smile in the world that Persephone returned, and it never met her eyes. “Deities cannot change. Our fate has been set in stone since the dawn of time.”

Julia snorted involuntarily, coffee coming out of her nostrils. She quickly found a tissue, dodging Persephone’s gaze.

“What’s so funny?” The Goddess of Fertility and Queen of the Underworld said.

When Julia looked up, shadows of fresh branches seemed to grow alongside her shoulders, straightening them and making her seem impossibly tall even though Julia towered over her by at least a foot.

“Just your whole schtick with the Fates and the Oracle and the whole path that you are ‘forced to walk on’.” Julia was definitely not above using actual quotation marks in a real life conversation to get her point through. “Don’t you ever get sick of it?”

“Of course I get sick of it.” There was so much barely contained anger in the Goddess that the wooden panels along the side of the apartment groaned. Petals fell from the ceiling like rain, turning into ashes before they ever hit the ground. “Don’t you think that I would pick any other thing if that were possible? Our path is one of pain, and we were never allowed to forget that.”

Julia put down her cup and stepped around the cupboard. She walked over to Persephone, hesitating for a moment at the alarm in her eyes before she gently took her hands. They were prickly, as if the shadow branches sprouted thorns beneath her skin.

“You were never bound, Persephone,” Julia whispered, her eyes a steady counterpoint to the turmoil in Persephone’s. “You merely held each other captive until it drove you all to believe that you had no other choice. But it’s not true. It never was.”

“How would you know?” The words were filled with thorns, but they were dull.

“Because the Oracle told me so. Look around you - at the change you’re all exhibiting, given the chance.” Julia squeezed Persephone’s hands and felt the thorns prick through her skin, drawing blood. “Recognize it for what it is - your chance to do better. To be better. Together.”

Something inside Persephone's eyes splintered, and Julia tried to step back, but the invisible thorns wrapped themselves around her, digging into her hands, her arms, forcing her to stand still as she witnessed Persephone cracking apart in front of her.

That’s when the screams started.

Julia held on to dear life while the Goddess screamed as her skin cracked, the veins turning green from where Julia’s blood hit them as vines burrowed through Persephone’s skin. Across her chest the green vines become an icy dark, her skin turning cold to the touch.

The screams cut off abruptly, replaced by Persephone’s ragged breaths as she collapsed against Julia.

And Julia, who had not exercised at all in too many years could not bear the weight, and they both tumbled to the ground. As they landed, Julia hoped to the Fates that they wouldn’t land on Orion.

Her prayers were heard.

So Julia instead hit her head, knocking her out cold.

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #14

Hello all! Another chapter of TMTO coming up! This is a bit of a special chapter with some deeper insight into Aphrodite.

It was a ride to write, but it's also pivotal in both Aphrodite's, Ares' and Hera's development.

TW: Suidical thoughts, violence, anxiety, panic attack, depression

The First

Previous chapter

Next chapter

-

Curiosity killed the cat

“What do you mean ‘you shot someone’?”

There might have been more than a little shrillness evident in Julia’s voice. But even Ares seemed to be in chock. And he wasn’t even the one who’d actually come home with blood all over their hands after just having shot someone.

“How did you even get the weapon that would make such a thing possible?”

The question hung in the air, a weapon in and of itself. Because if Julia was living with Gods from Ancient Greece who were actually armed with modern weapons, she might just pass out. Or scream. Or do whatever appropriate thing that one did in such a situation.

“I … He …” Aphrodite trailed off, their eyes wide, mouth slightly agape. Julia had to wrench her eyes away from their mouth, feeling the Deity of Love’s magnetic pull tear at her. “He had a gun. And he was right there, when Ares showed me the clinic. They were all so scared, I could feel the love in the room as they thought the thoughts that might have been the last.

“I didn’t think. Just acted.”

Ares looked at Julia, a grim smile on his face, the shock ebbing out with every second. He’d seen this before, she reminded herself. Had probably felt it in every ounce of this world and all others.

“Aphrodite lunged. I actually think it was the fiercest and fastest movement that they have ever made, quickly dismantling the intruder’s grip of the gun.” Then something dark flickered over his eyes, even as he laughed. The embers of his hands sung a song of betrayal as they flickered to life. “The bastard managed to pull the trigger as they pushed his arm away, shooting himself in the shoulder in the process - you should have heard the screams and moans he let out after that!”

It didn’t take any more information for Julia to pull Aphrodite with her, tugging gently at their arm to guide them through the house. She settled the deity into the couch, which had apparently become therapy spot number one over the course of the last few months.

“I don’t … it wasn’t on purpose,” Aphrodite kept repeating the words. That they hadn’t meant to, and they didn’t do it on purpose.

Suddenly, their eyes turned wild, and they gripped Julia’s shoulders, fingers digging into them like the claws of a beast.

“YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME I DIDN’T DO IT IT ISN’T RIGHT NO NO”

The scream almost turned her deaf, and she could do nothing but stare into the eyes of Aphrodite as the storm inside of them churned and churned, faster into the chasm that their own mind seemed to become.

She continued screaming, with Julia by her side, stiff as a board, merely staring and blubbering as they moved their arms away from her, tearing at their own skin instead. Blood was drawn, lines of red winding down their arms.

“Move it,” Hera said, her voice hard. But when Julia turned, there was something inexplicable that made her move - that made her collaborate instead of doubt the other woman.

Tension and softness and the promise of Hells to pay to whomever had done this.

It only took a few seconds for Julia to vault over the couch, Hera taking her stead. Ares stared, dumbfounded with his mouth slightly open, at the mess that Aphrodite was becoming.

Tears streamed down their face as they screamed, an ugly cry that twisted in the room, tearing at their minds. Julia took the cue that Hera sent her in the form of a long look and started herding the remaining Gods and Goddesses out of the room.

Except for Ares.

“I need to be here,” he said, his eyes never leaving Aphrodite. Flames licked at his hands. A warning.

One that Julia heeded.

Hera gripped Aphrodite’s shoulders, her hands digging into the bones beneath their skin, her eyes locking with theirs. There was something broken in the iris - the thing torn apart, darkness draining into the vibrant honeys around.

Hera soothed, her voice dripping into the tone that she had seen Artemis use with the scared children who came to her. She kept her eyes locked with Aphrodite’s whenever the other woman glanced her way.

But there was no stopping the screaming.

A thing that grew as it continued, more words stumbling through their teeth, one taking over the other until it became incoherent. A shriek from a banshee, hidden within the darkest parts of the mind.

The Queen of the Heavens stayed by her side, but encouraged Ares to come closer, too. With her hands, which would forever be stronger than those of Aphrodite with the power that Hera had in advantage, she kept her grip tight, even as they thrashed against her with all of their might, lost in their own mind.

“Tell her,” was all she said to Ares. A request and a command in one and the same, her lips pulling apart to show teeth in something that was more animal than ethereal.

There was no telling if the War God would be able to understand. No telling that the brute of a doofus would get what was going on.

But then again, the brute would be feeling each and every thing. Something that the Gods did not usually do.

But Aphrodite was lashing out in such a blind way - it had reached the levels of mortals. Their emotion had become something more than the pettiness Hera had seen among them all.

Had seen among herself.

And it had only just started to manifest - when they were all beginning to get their powers back. She had felt the same thing warping in her chest. Something beyond the things that had happened.

They were changing. But it was not by the force of others - nevermore adapting to a tyrant king.

She just hoped it was enough for when they were forced home again. She could still feel the remnants of their home. The tingling of electricity in her veins, ice coasting over her skin, fire burning a hot path through her bones. And then the last thing, the earthy element that seemed to cloud their very breathing, keeping their words tethered to the veil of the world.

The Fates must be laughing at them all now. Hera knew she would have been.

oh god it was so much too much they couldn’t take it. what had happened it was burning tearing away at their consciousness. down through veins through brain and bone and sinew and leaving their mouth in wracking words that coalesced with the foreign air outside.

“Tell her.”

The words cut against Aphrodite’s stream of consciousness, if for a moment. Then they were dragged again into the abyss.

it hurts. how could the humans deal with this pain? nothing nothing like the pain she had felt. nothing even like being cut up and torn apart and fed to the wolves. there would always be coming back from that. this-

“Aphrodite.” The words soft. And yet, they knew that voice. There was something that called them.

-this was something beyond that. shattering and burning up and tearing apart at the same time until nothing but ash remained. pain pain pain a pulsing poetry wracking through their head.

“I can feel the war raging through you. I can feel your battle, your bravery. I can feel the pain and the fury and all that is not right.”

more and more. tearing her further down. a kraken hidden within the mess of it all its tentacles gripping at their arms and legs until the only way out - the only way to reach power was the scream that tore through their bleeding lungs.

“I see, now, that you went through this once. Perhaps many times before. At my expense. I see that I have driven you over the edge.” Something ran down the side of her, something physical and soft and calloused and very much there. “I can feel the scar tissue that closes over your heart, your very soul. I wonder how much I have caused.”

Images. Screaming, flipping. Tearing themselves apart as the pain in their heart became too much to bear. Blood running in streams down their legs, like some form of twisted miracle of birth. Love and pain and something entirely strange coalescing inside of her. Growing, growing, growing-

Then the whisper. Piercing through them, scattered thoughts attempting to fall into the position. “Sorry can never be enough. Sorry will forever be lacking because I know the battle. Tearing yourself apart day after day and then rebuilding yourself. All for the sake of others.”

The thing in their mind grabbing at them, trying to drag them bag down, right when they were nearing the light - right when they were getting so close. and they feel their grip loosening waves of salty darkness forcing its way into lungs and fatesaboveshe’sdrowning.

“Your love almost destroyed you then.”

nothingbutdarkness. iftheyclosetheireyestheycanalmostseetheendofitall.

“I will not let that happen again.”

inthedarkness and it is coming for them and it reaches, plunging into the murky waters. Teeth snapping at the thing that envelops them, weapons cutting at beasts too dark to spy. They look up, and it is War incarnate. Right there with them - right there by their side.

But he doesn’t keep fighting. He let’s himself be taken by the monsters around him, reaching out a hand. A hand that is not empty.

Aphrodite - yes, that is their name, they remember now - takes the sword.

And then they unleash themselves upon the thing that tries to keep them imprisoned, clawing and slashing and hacking at it with all of their might.

It doesn’t stand a chance.

It retreats, back into the depths of their mind. They know that it is still there, watching, waiting. Next time, they will be ready.

It was never too late.

And with that, they smile at Ares. A grin that is toothy and filled with the gaps that they know he likes. Gaps of secrets and friendship and promises unsaid.

Aphrodite opens their eyes.

Ares felt them. The war, the pain, the love. He was crouched over them, as if his body could reach into their mind and dull the war that was going on there. He hoped he had given enough.

Because no matter how much he enjoyed partaking in the bloodshed - no matter how fantastic the rush of victory through him was, he would always be banished to the sidelines when the war came to its climax.

The most important point, that pivotal moment.

And he was locked out. Forbidden from deciding the outcome. He supposed it was the Fates’ way of keeping power in check. Supposed that the other Gods and Goddesses had similar rules imposed.

Supposed anything to keep it from being a punishment directed at him. For all the horrible, terrible things he had done.

Bloodshed was inevitable in war. Even the silent ones - the wars with oneselves - were never without losses. Ares would forever be doomed to look at the survivors with guilt in his eyes, face and body tense as to not collapse.

Because that was another thing. Another burden.

He was War incarnate. He was the one to greet the survivors - the people who had gone through much and yet had so much more ahead of them. When the blood stopped singing in their veins and the ringing began instead, he was the one who stood in the corner, silently there for each and every subsequent battle.

Many didn’t survive the aftermath. The second and third and fourth battles with themselves, yes. But when it went into the dozens - when enemies piled up outside the door, waiting for one to be defeated for a new battalion to rush in, that was when he was there.

Death happened on the inside, too. Death much worse than whatever Hades or Persephone could do to them. Something that killed souls before they were even born anew.

And he had just watched Death come around for Aphrodite. Something that was supposed to be impossible. They could not collapse to other feelings, the Gods would not be able to succumb to anything but themselves.

And yet.

Yet they had come home, gone into shock.

Yet he had felt the war creep up on them, much like the horseman of the apocalypse he had been reading about. His counterpart looming over Aphrodite with a scythe of their own making.

Ares did not stand back then. He felt it rip something apart in him, something that was supposed to stay whole. Something that he had desperately needed.

But he could care less, in the moment. As he flung himself into their mind. Into his own death.

Aphrodite came to life beneath him with a cough and a sputter, Ares silently moving away and letting Hera give them the glass of water that she had prepared.

Alongside the broken crack, another thing stretched out. It took him a long time to discern the feeling. Relief. Relief coursed through him, warming his every limb, putting a fire into his eyes that he had never before felt.

Not just because Aphrodite was here, safe and whole. But also because of what delving into her mind had just done. He had done it. The thing that the Fates had forbidden him from - sure, he was a little beat up and broken, but that didn’t matter. He would sustain injuries any day if that meant that he could save others.

That he could help the ones at the clinic with something other than his presence and the knowledge that he would always be there, watching, waiting.

As the evening progressed and the others came milling back into the room, cooing and caring for Aphrodite, Ares felt himself smiling fondly at the group. This was not a family by blood anymore, not just, at least.

Because now, the blood of the covenant had become more powerful than the water of the womb. It could not be more true with Julia standing to the side, laughing with the best of them.

Ares never showed them his hands. His eyes, he could hide. The crack that was ripping through his chest, too.

But his hands, bruised and bloody and dark with the blood of a thousand, he never showed them.

Because there were no more embers left in the War God. The fire of War had been emptied, taken away by the same thing that had marred him down his middle, cleaving into his chest.

Justice for that would come later. For now, he was content to laugh with his family.

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #16

Hello everyone!

I apologize for missing out on an update or two, but I have been swamped with exams and cramming and life has just pretty generally been fucking me up.

So here is another chapter, I hope you enjoy!

The First Chapter

Previous chapter

Next chapter

//

An old friend comes knocking and suddenly there are Greek Gods crashing at your place

Julia had told herself that she would leave Kenneth alone. He deserved it. He deserved to be able to choose for himself and she should respect his wishes.

It had become somewhat of a mantra for her, repeating over and over again inside her mind until she became almost numb to the feeling of it. She still wanted to cry a lot, but Olivia and Yrene were there for her and-

-And it wasn’t like she didn’t miss the long chatterbox evenings with her and Kenneth in college, both of them gushing over their interests. Or the evenings under the night sky because she had finally - finally - found someone who loved the stars just as dearly as she did. Or the ski trips or culinary masterpieces or movie binges or …

Yeah, who was she kidding, she missed him like hell.

But that still didn’t make it intentional when she found out that she’d winded up standing just outside his door, and oh god her hand was going for the bell and it rung and what was she supposed to do now.

Kenneth opened the door as Julia was trying to decide between bolting down the hall and hiding behind the large succulent which was placed in the hallway. Neither of which went very well, if she should say so.

Which coincidentally ended as she stood halfway crouched behind the plant, eyeing the elevators through the other end of the hall, one foot already on its way over there.

Kenneth raised an eyebrow, a muscle in his jaw tensing as he saw her. But there was also that tick around his mouth that he did when he was trying to hold back a grin, and she must have been doing something right.

It was a small victory. And perhaps it showed her that she’d been right in coming here.

Even if it was totally not respecting his privacy and she was feeling guilty just thinking about it.

“What do you want?” He said, eyes narrowing at her as if he was trying to figure out a particularly annoying puzzle that kept coming around and bugging him, even after he had put it back on the shelf.

Julia cleared her throat, stepping out from behind the plant. One of the sharp edges cut her down the side of her hand, but she ignored it, focusing instead on actually formulating a coherent answer, because she wanted to get running most of all right now.

Running away from her problems had been a habit for long enough. She’d have to start facing them herself at some point. At least that was what she told herself.

“Just …” She trailed off. So much for a coherent answer. Then she tried again, her voice coming out so fast that even she didn’t understand what she was saying.

Incidentally, she also gesticulated violently with her hands, and a splatter of blood was flung onto the floor in front of Kenneth. He sighed and turned around, leaving the door open behind him.

“Come in and get cleaned up,” he said as he rummaged around the house. Julia stepped inside tentatively, clutching her bleeding hand with the other, trying to lessen the amount that dripped onto the carpets inside. “Say what you wanted to say and then leave.”

He followed it up with a grumble that sounded suspiciously much like maybe then I can finally get some peace from all of this shit.

Julia sat down on the very uttermost edge of one of the kitchen stools, glancing around the place. Since just a few months ago, it had turned into a mess. Broken pots spilling dirt all over the place, plants withering where they were standing. Glasses and plates and trash piling up both in corners, on tables and chairs.

Taking a closer look at Kenneth himself, she saw the red rimmed eyes, bloody veins clear in the whites of them. Five o’ clock shadow, bags underneath his eyes, and didn’t he look much thinner than last she’d seen him?

His shirt was crumbled with stains piling down it, and he only wore slacks. It wasn’t even his favorite pair - instead it was the one pair that he had always told her itched too much, and that he should just throw it out.

When he handed her the wipes for her hand, she made eye contact with him. He looked away without even holding her gaze for a moment, the anger in his eyes replaced with something she couldn’t decipher. Something empty.

“How’s it going?” Julia asked, then immediately bashed herself in her head for saying it. She knew that it was stupid but it was honestly the only thing other than you look like shit that popped into her mind.

Kenneth snorted, but it was without feeling. His arms fell limp at his sides when he pulled his hands back. “Just peachy,” he said, his voice just as flat as the rest of him.

“You know you can talk to me,” Julia said, wincing at the flash that went through his eyes at the words.

“No. No, as a matter of fact, I can’t. I don’t know if I ever could, now that we’re on the subject.” He put a finger to his chin and tapped twice in mock thoughtfulness, his words tearing vicious holes at Julia. “Because what was actually for me and what was for your own personal gratification? Were you ever really there or were you always so selfish?”

“Of course I was there.” It was really a struggle to keep the incredulousness out of her voice, as it threatened to tinge her entire being. She knew he was hurting and that caused him to lash out.

Knew it, but that didn’t mean that she was just going to take the beating. Her voice as soft as she could muster, she said. “I was always there. Even when you felt like I only did it for myself, I would have always picked up the phone when you called. I would have always come over when you needed me.”

“Then why didn’t you.” It wasn’t even a question. His tone with its grief staining it had wrenched it out of proportion becoming something much more like that of a wail than anything else. “Why weren’t you there when he was taken from me? Why didn’t you lend a hand when we were preparing for the last rites. Why did you abandon me, too?”

Well damn. There was nothing she could say that would ever make it good enough. Not when she had been away for the duration of the funeral. Not when she had failed him for so long as a friend.

Instead she whispered. “I should have been.”

It was a whole sentence. There was no room for apologies, because none would ever be good enough. None would ever reach that place in his heart where he had built up hate for so long.

“I should have been, and nothing will ever make me regret that more.” She whispered, her hands coming up to hug herself. She kept looking at him, however, even when her body tried to force her to lower her gaze. “I will always be sorry for that, but I cannot make up for it if you won’t let me. If this is it, then I will go home and never attempt to speak to you again. I can move you to the team we have beneath us and we won’t even have to work together anymore. Say the words, and I will go.”

The silence dragged on, with him avoiding her gaze and her doing her damned best to get through to him. To let him know how much of a mistake she had made and how much she would forever regret it.

“I- I need time to think,” he said, finally. There was a flicker of hope in his eyes. Something that spurred a careful smile in Julia, her face lighting up fully when he gave a careful one back.

Then it turned stern. “We will have to start over. I need to build trust from the ground up again, and I won’t be able to be with you much, but-” This time a little less tentative came his small smile, the signature smile that he used among friends. “-but I might have missed you hounding me just a tiny bit.”

Julia placed a careful hand over his. “Whatever you need. I missed you, too. And so did Olivia and Yrene. They’ve been at my throat throughout this entire month to get my ass over here and make up with you.”

At the coughing laugh Kenneth let out, Julia felt something loosen in her chest, a weight lifting from it with each breath. They might make it through this yet.

Silence fell between them, heavier than Julia would like. So she cleared her throat - which resulted in her scolding herself for clearing her throat so much - and made ready to stand up.

“Then I guess I’d better get going,” she said, rocking back on her heels, one hand used to keep the band around her hand in place as to not bleed through it. “If you ever want to talk, don’t hesitate to call me.”

She made it all of four steps before Kenneth grabbed her arm, forcing her to come to a stop. With a look of surprised, she turned to him and he let his hand drop as if he’d been burned on her skin.

“Would you-” He started, cutting himself short a moment after. Then he took in a deep breath. His hands idle, fidgeting with a speck of paint that was peeling off from the counter. “Is it too much to ask for you to stay with me? We can have a sleepover, just like old times.” A tentative smile to accompany it. “Then I might be able to get it enough together to clean up this mess.”

Julia swore that she would have been able to see the light bulb flare over her head in that moment. “Are you sure that you just want it to be the two of us? I mean, I’d love to have some time together, and I’d be perfectly fine with just the two of us camping down on your couch for some Netflix.”

Then a grin that she knew sparked devil horns atop her head. Kenneth even smiled a little wider, his eyes flickering between her eyes and the floor.

“What would you be suggesting otherwise?” He said, something careful lining the words. As if she would turn on her heel and run away from him right then and there. His hands twitched by his sides, as if they could barely restrain themselves from reaching out for her.

“Let’s get the Ghostbusters all together again,” Julia said, gesticulating to the room around her. Her smile became impossibly wider and it occurred to her that it might have contained just a bit of forced cheerfulness. Even if that didn’t matter at all, because the look of tentative hopefulness on Kenneth’s face was all worth it.

“Let’s get this mess cleaned up.”

So. Julia had very much planned for this.

The clean apartment, yes. The freaking four hours spent cleaning, each of the four of them running around and making commentary about the nasty stuff that Kenneth had had lying around, his face reddening each time.

She’d also anticipated the softness that came over them - even Yrene - after Olivia and Yrene had raged at him for about five seconds. This wasn’t entirely their Kenneth. There was something going on with him and they were determined to be there even if it meant that they would cast aside some of their own things for him.

Julia had gotten that through her thick head. It was something friends did for each other, when they needed each other.

What she hadn’t anticipated was Athena hacking her phone somehow and then thereafter coming barging into Kenneth’s apartment with no regards to anything anywhere near the area of ‘personal space’.

Which of course left her in the ‘who is this’ stage with her friends. Who would in a split second be able to tell whether or not she was lying.

So far, her options were 1) let Athena explain and watch her friends slip away in disbelief or 2) still lie to them but have a very good reason™ that she would be able to explain later on.

Or, if the impossible happened that her friends were just as much of a lunatic as she was, then 3) them coming to understand that she was housing the Greek Gods in her apartment and hadn’t told them about it.

Suffice to say, Julia was wincing before Athena even opened her mouth, preparing for the worst.

“I am truly sorry for interrupting your ... undoubtedly very important activities, but there are much larger matters at stake right now.” Athena, in fact, did not sound very sorry at all. Yrene narrowed her eyes at the Goddess in return, clearly not buying the act either, even if Athena was applying the correct facial expressions for her statement to sell. “Julia, I must have your aid immediately. There is not another moment to waste.”

An easy way out. But also something she was reluctant to take.

Because what if an ‘emergency’ constituted as something much different from Julia’s perception of it - from a human perception of it. How would she know what the Gods and Goddesses considered emergencies?

And she wasn’t about to wade waist high into cold waters with her friends just to help the figurative cat down from a tree.

“I need to know what it’s about, first,” Julia said, voice as firm as she could make it. Especially because there was a slumbering beast behind the eyes of Athena, and she didn’t really care for waking the War God within her. “Just to know, for sure, that I have to leave.”

“Who is this?” Olivia asked, staring at Julia. Kenneth gave a laughter that was drenched in bitterness - something Julia had spent the last five hours trying to coax out of him.

“Don’t you see?” He said, cutting off Julia who was preparing a sufficient answer. “This must have been the ones she’s been spending all of her time with, before she made her way back over to us to ‘make up’.”

“You’re paranoid, Ken,” Yrene said, voice hard as stone. She glared from him to Athena to Julia, clearly waiting for an explanation.

Perhaps truth wasn’t always the way to go, Julia thought.

“I am Athena, God of Tactical War and Wisdom. I protect cities but can just as easily bring them to their knees. I sprung from the head of my father, fully formed and ready for battle-”

“Yeah, yeah.” Yrene said, cutting off Athena. Julia had never seen anger flare more dangerously as it did in the eyes of the Gods, and Athena was no exception. “Who are you really, lady?”

She stalked closer to Yrene, one hand lifting all the same. It seemed just a few moments before this would turn into an all out brawl with the way that Yrene stared her down, never backing down from the fury that shone in the other’s eyes.

Her spear materialized in her hand, the helmet coming to on her head. And suddenly, Julia stood with an owl on her shoulder.

That made everyone but Yrene take a step back, the others glancing from one to another. Yrene merely gave a snort, her hand closing around the hilt of the spear, dangerously close to Athena’s.

“Any more magic tricks up your sleeve?” She asked, but there was the same level of belief while in disbelief in her voice, her hand clenching around the hilt until the grip turned white.

“Just one,” Athena whispered, stepping back with inhuman speed, leaving Yrene to stumble forward. With her feet, she trailed a set of complicated shapes on the carpet. Then she flipped her spear and dug the tip of it into the middle of it.

The shapes began to glow. Rising from the carpet, they floated in the air, faintly shimmering with the power they contained. Then they rearranged, glimmering in the air as they did. Julia was blinded for a second, but when she blinked the black spots away, there it was.

A map of New York fluttered in the air, hovering slightly up and down, only broken up by the fact that Yrene’s torso was placed smack dab in the middle of it, the woman staring at herself with wide eyes.

Then it seemed to register, and she scrambled back, the most Julia had ever seen her come to retreat.

Olivia, on the other hand, stepped forward, her eyes never leaving the marvel in front of her that most of all looked like something right out of a science fiction movie set in the far future.

“You seem to have gotten some inspiration from popular culture,” Julia remarked, running her hand through the light show that was unfolding in front of their very eyes. And were those tiny dots actual people? They certainly seemed to move as they looked upon it.

Then she turned to Kenneth. “Look, I get that you’re hurt and that you don’t trust me. But I have been caught up in this mess that is the actual Greek Gods coming from ancient Greece and dumping right into the middle of my apartment.”

She gestured to Athena, a flicker of annoyance settling on her face before she managed to hide it. “And when they pull shit like this, then it’s very hard get out of the responsibilities suddenly heaped upon me.”

“I’d say,” Yrene said, brushing herself off. Then she eyed the Goddess among them. “You really Athena?” A nod in answer that sent a shit eating grin spreading all over Yrene’s face. “We’ve got some things to discuss.”

“Nope. No. Nu-uh,” Julia uttered as she pulled Yrene behind her, pushing her out of sight for Athena. Minerva uttered a sound that couldn’t be interpreted as anything but indignant and flew off her shoulder as she was jostled around. “Remind me not to put you two unsupervised in the same room together.”

Yrene pouted, but Athena merely laughed. “As if you could stop us.”

Which of course turned Julia to whirl towards her once more, a hand behind her back feeling for Yrene’s position at all times.

“Didn’t you have something important that I needed to come take a look at ASAP?” she asked, realizing that she would have lost the other battle very quickly at the rate that this was going.

“Yes. Hades is summoning more Gods.” There was an indifference to the words, as if she had not just come barging into Kenneth’s apartment, demanding Julia’s immediate attention. It was also, consequently, the thing that made her frown hard.

“And that is a problem because ..?” Julia said, trailing off. More Gods in this world would be a nuisance for her, sure, but they weren’t exactly going about wrecking havoc in this world, so she couldn’t see the problem.

“Because we are getting out powers back. Slowly but surely. Because it might mean that Zeus will accidentally be let through,” Athena answered, her face crumpling in a grimace at the mention of the God of Thunder. Julia must have looked confused, because she continued.

“Because he might not want to return when he figures out how great it is here. Even when he has regained his full powers.”

Several things went unsaid. Several things that made Julia go oh shit in her head, even if Olivia sent a confused look their way.

“I don’t understand why that would be a bad thing,” she said, Yrene chiming in with a grunt of support.

“Zeus is the King of the Gods, but also considered the most powerful of them.” The low voice came from Kenneth, to Julia’s surprise. There was a look of dawning horror that spread across his face, his back slumping as it did. “He is more powerful than all of the Gods, he is a rapist and an abuser - much like several of the Gods and Goddesses-” A pointed look at Athena, which was received with a grim nod. “-and he is considered the largest dick of the entire Greek Pantheon, by modern standards.”

A pause, but when no one seemed to react, he looked to each of them, a deep crinkle going through his forehead. “Like an all-the-way-through asshole kind of person.”

Yrene sent them one of her signature fighting smiles, grimness coursing through it. “Then we better make sure he doesn’t ever get here.”

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #19

Hiya people!

We are nearing the final arc of the story, and I am excited about what's to come - there will be heartbreak and just plain brokenness, but I promise you that it will all be worth it in the end (even if Julia does NOT think so).

Now go forth and enjoy this week's chapter!

The First Chapter

Previous Chapter

Next chapter

//

Knocking on Olympus’ door

“Are you kidding me?” Julia said, flinging out her arms. The portal hung silently in the air, showing white marble beyond it. “You want him here?”

A woman clad in a black flowy dress stepped through, her dark hair a frizz around her head. Hades rushed forward, drawing a few lines on the sphere protecting in front of him and gave the woman a tight hug.

“He wouldn’t know what to do with himself here. I’ve seen the news of this world - with no magic, Zeus wouldn’t stand a chance traipsing around and courting women.”

Julia had already started shaking her head when the first word had left Hera’s mouth. “He’s a God. The King of them, in fact. And you all seem to be getting your magic back - how do you know he won’t?”

“Oh he will.” Hades peeked up from where he had buried his face in the woman’s hair, looking from Hera to Julia. “My brother might not be the smartest, but there is a chaotic energy to this world - it’s something that I’ve never experienced before.”

“Yeah, then maybe you should have left it alone,” Julia said. Then she turned to Hera. “Why don’t you just divorce him and leave it at that? Leave the rest of the world out of it, thank you.”

“I am saving the world from him,” Hera said, her teeth like slashes in the light coming from the runes below her. “He will see his errors or we will leave without him.”

“You’re a selfish, petty Goddess,” Julia said. Hera’s eyes narrowed, but Julia continued. “I thought you were supposed to be the protector of women; of families. I thought you would free yourself from the prejudice and destruction that had been wrought to your image. I guess I was wrong.”

She had gone up against two Gods now, and while she had by no means won, she was still alive.

That had to count for something, right?

“But fine. If you want to play shaper of the world’s fate - if you would like to condemn it to the same fate that you have been bound by for millenia, then go ahead.”

She turned on her heel, hearing the muffled sound of voices on the other side of the portal.

“Just get the hell out of my apartment while you do it.”

She managed to get outside before her bad leg gave out. She almost sent a silent thanks to the Gods for that, but she was afraid that Hera might hear.

With a bit of trouble, she lowered herself to the ground, sliding against the warehouse on one foot. At least the ground wasn’t wet. Her shirt stuck to her back, the blood beginning to coagulate.

Julia fished her phone out of her pocket, tapping the screen. When that didn’t work, she tried the power button. Her reflection in the black screen stared back at her before being obscured by droplets.

She closed her eyes.

“It really is something different here,” Hermes said, the dirt beside her crunching as he sat down. “I think it’s the people. It is so different from the ones who worship us.”

Julia bent her knees and hugged them to her chest. “Yeah. We have no demigods or blessed people to help us out. No Fates to decide what happens. Whatever cruelty we come up with, only comes from our weak, mortal minds.”

A breath of wind glazed over her tear stained cheeks as Hermes moved. She could care less whether he went with the other Gods - it was game over for this world. Stuck as a plaything between the hands of greedy giants.

A pair of ever shifting hands grabbed her arms, gently pulling them from her knees and drawing them away from her body until she felt the same hands on her own.

“On the contrary,” Hermes said, and Julia opened her eyes, tears blurring her vision of the God. But even so, she could see the glint that simmered there, mischief almost burning its way out of his soul. “You have never known true binding. We are but fairytales to you - myths of great power. Scary stories to tell your children.”

She let herself be dragged to her feet, almost mesmerized by the promise in his eyes. The God of Travelers in more ways than one, it seemed.

“And so, you have found ways to create your own magic. This,” - Julia hadn’t realized until now that he was waving it in her face that he had snatched the dead phone out of her hands - “Could have never survived in the world we come from. We control inventions there - if something as powerful as this would be capable of connecting the humans of our world, we would never have power over them again.

“And the wonders you have found - medicine, cities blooming from the ground and up, ways of traveling that could match even us.” He bent down and placed a light touch on her foot, and Julia felt the pain subside. “We might be able to do magnificent things, but we will never do something new. We cannot reinvent ourselves as you do, bound by the Fates as we are.”

Testing her foot, Julia found herself reaching out for him, touching his arm lightly. His eyes had filled with a sadness that seemed to color them blue, even with the greens, browns and grays that flittered over them.

“You were never bound by anything but the expectations you hold yourselves to,” she said, eyes soft. “You let yourself be controlled by the dictation of others - you might not be able to change who you are completely, but you can control how you use the gifts you were given.”

It occurred to her that she had been lecturing and giving life advice to quite a few Gods and Goddesses in the short time that they had been there. It made her feel just a little bit hysterical, the adrenaline getting ready to pump through her veins yet again.

Perhaps she could start an official business, now that they were all coming to her world anyways.

“You would never understand,” Hermes said, pulling away from her and letting out a deep sigh. “Our paths were laid years ago. Even the most erratic and spontaneous of us were always contained in some way or another.”

At the pain in his voice, she stepped closer. She touched his arm again, but this time, she kept it still, feeling him stiffen beneath her touch. “Did the prophecies and Fates and Oracles warn you of this?”

The ghost of a smile flitted over his face, disappearing so fast that Julia thought she might have imagined it, if it wasn’t for the steel solidifying in his eyes.

“They did know,” Hermes said, the smile coming back. It was every bit as wide as the one Hera had sent her when she had gone feral, and Julia took a step back.

She didn’t make it far, though, because she was quickly enveloped in a tight hug.

“They knew all along,” Hermes whispered in her ear. “And now I know how we become myths in your world. Perhaps Hades was right. We still stand a chance.”

There was a flutter of movement, like a cloud of butterflies flying into her face, and when Julia deemed it safe to open her eyes again, the God of Travel and Thieves was gone.

“The question is,” she said to no one in particular. “Do I really want to find out?”

“That is an important question isn’t it?” Miranda seemed to have appeared out of thin air, her wrinkled face ever smiling. “Are you ready to believe in Fate?”

Julia narrowed her eyes before leaning back on her hands. “You always knew, didn’t you?”

It added up, now that she thought about it. Miranda had moved into the apartment shortly after Julia, and the old woman had been quick to reach out and establish friendly connections with her. She had always dropped by at the right moment, always been there when Julia needed a little extra something.

“The Oracle never dies,” Miranda said, sitting down besides Julia and staring into thin air. “It is the blessing and the curse of existence.”

“Why did you have to pull me into all of this, though?” Julia muttered, feeling the hollowness growing inside her, even though she refused to acknowledge the Deity-shaped hole that the betrayal had left her. “Why did my perfectly adequate existence have to be turned around because of the whims of the Fates?”

A croaking laugh made its way past Miranda’s lips, her eyes glittering as she looked at Julia. “Nothing was ever made by the Fates. They merely oversee the flow of time. So do I, in a way, but people tend to give the four of us too much credit when really, all we do is see probabilities.”

She leaned back, grunting in pain as her joints cracked. “Prophecies are self-fulfilling, you know. And behavior becomes predictable after a while.” A glance at Julia. “I mean, I didn’t have to see into the future to predict the exact rhythm of your day before the Deities dropped in.”

Julia gave a slight smile at that. “I guess I was kind of stuck,” she said, her shoulders slumping inwards. “But I still don’t see the point of the Greek Pantheon getting hurtled into the future.”

“Are you really sure that there has been no point to this whole ordeal? You didn’t learn the slightest thing about yourself and your friends?” Miranda gave a mischievous smile, continuing on before Julia had the chance to protest. “And even if it was all a waste, the Fates weren’t the ones who facilitated it. The Deities themselves did.”

“I don’t understand,” Julia said as she scratched at the back of her head. “Why would they do that?”

“You’re not the only one who’s been feeling a little stuck,” the flicker of a smile was still there as Miranda turned on her heel and began walking away.

“Am I just supposed to put up with what they did, then?” Julia said after her, her hands bracing against the cold ground. “Hades tried to murder me.”

“Didn’t you listen, dear child?” Miranda said, glancing over her shoulder. “You aren’t supposed to do anything. The floor is yours.”

Then she turned a corner, and when Julia limped over to check, the old Oracle had disappeared into thin air.

Damn them all to the deepest pits of the world.

She gave a frustrated sigh, clenching her hands at her sides. “Murderous, conniving, manipulative petty creatures,” she grumbled through gritted teeth.

Turning, she found Hera, Hades and the dark-haired and dark skinned woman that must have been Persephone all staring at her with various degrees of smiles on their faces.

“I’m surprised you’re still here,” Hera drawled, something that Julia couldn’t quite decipher glinting in her eyes. Then they hardened. “I thought you’d have gone back to your normal life again. You couldn’t wait to get away.”

“You did both try to rip me apart today,” Julia replied, her throat dry. But she held on to Hera’s gaze. “I’m surprised you would want to spend a minute longer than absolutely necessary in this world - with us mortals.”

Persephone looked from one to the other, and then up at Hades who still had traces of blue blood on his face even if the nose seemed to have healed. Confusion marred her face before it turned into pure anger, and she hurried over to Julia.

“May I?” She said, her eyes filled with worry and warmth.

“I guess it can’t hurt,” Julia replied, steeling herself as to not flinch when the Goddess of Spring bent down and laid a hand on her leg.

“Hades you utter fool. I’d expect this sort of thing from Zeus or Hera but never from you.” Persephone’s hands sent relief through Julia as the Goddess spoke, the pain ebbing away with each passing moment. “This is unacceptable. Letting yourself be consumed by magic just to break through? You should have waited.”

“I couldn’t,” Hades replied, pain shining in his eyes. He looked away when Julia tried to meet them before seemingly forcing himself to look at her. “I am really sorry, Julia. I never meant to hurt you. But my power is cracking at the seams.”

Persephone gasped and straightened herself, getting to work on Julia’s shoulder. Meanwhile, Hera’s mouth became a thin line.

“Cracking at the seams?” Julia said, tentatively bringing more weight onto her bad leg. The throbbing had stopped. “What does that mean?”

“It means that we’re nearing the end,” Hera said, inspecting her nails.

“Oh stop being so cryptic,” Persephone said, stepping away from Julia. “You’re all done. There might be a bit of an ache during the next couple of days but that should be over sooner rather than later.

“Now, onto the question of power. We’ve long had a prophecy hanging over our heads that we’d feel our power cracking and leaking into the world around the end of days. Or, at least the end of Gods.”

“There were no signs of it on Olympus, and most of us laughed at the Oracle when she made the prophecy, because Gods can’t die,” Hades said. He scratched at his neck, his hands twitching with the effort not to reach out for Persephone. “But then we ended up here. We got a taste of mortality-”

“Yes, and our powers are returning. It was quite a spell that you and Hermes just performed in there,” Hera said, cutting off Hades. She sent him a glare. “Why didn’t you say that you were cracking?”

“Because you already knew.”

Hera turned silent at that.

“Wait, what are you saying? You’ve ushered in the end of Gods or something?” Julia was trying to keep up, but it was getting late and her head was spinning from the adrenaline that she’d had to burn through.

“Not just the end of Gods,” Hades said, the shadows creeping back into his eyes. “When we crack apart, so does the prison that we made so long ago.”

For the first time, Hera looked sick. “Kronos will come crawling back.”

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #15

Hello everyone!

This week's episode of my favorite "Greek Gods get thrown into the modern world while stripped of their powers" story is fairly short, and I do apolgize, but it is going to get juicy in a while!

Besides, it's my 21st birthday tomorrow, so it's going to be a busy but amazing day!

Thank you all for reading, it means the world to me.

The First Chapter

Previous chapter

Next chapter

______________________

Relief and revival

Kenneth still wasn’t speaking to her. It bothered her, sure, but there were indications of him not even speaking to Yrene and Olivia, pulling completely away from everything until he seemed to be perpetually staying in the den that his home had become.

Julia only knew the latter because he had to call in and inform her of him doing ‘home office’ due to ‘health complications’.

Well, he called Katie, anyways. And Katie kept slamming down the phone on the table after every call, which must have meant that she was giving him lip on how she thought the whole thing was going.

She really couldn’t keep her nose out of stuff. Even when she ought to.

It was something that had helped Julia on multiple occasions, but it was also something that unnerved and annoyed her to no end. It meant full transparency about certain things that might at some point, somehow affect work in any way whatsoever.

And if Julia tried to avoid talking to her secretary, you best believe that the woman would just dig into the case herself.

Hence the frustration when Kenneth seemed to be shirking his duties in order to stay at home and sulk over some broken relationships with his friends.

Julia’s heart ached for him, her grip turning white every time the thought of him at home and alone went through her. The worst part was that she didn’t know how to fix it - when he wouldn’t face her, she wouldn’t be able to understand his anger and his pain.

But perhaps that was the whole point. Perhaps she should just let him go - pass out of their lives like a friend long since gone.

She blinked back the tears when that thought went through her, continuing to work on the next project they were going to get up and running.

If he could trust Hermes - and in this case, he was very sure that he could, because there were things that flitted across the face of the other God, too fast for him to fully perceive but a reminder of their goal.

Perhaps it was devotion, or even a lust for vengeance. Perhaps it was simple mischief that shone in them.

Hades had never been able to tell, and would probably have a hard time with it even in the future. If they ever found out whether they had a future. The Gods of the past had disappeared in this time, somehow.

And there was a chill that ran up his spine, whispering about the reasons for it.

Most days, he succeeded in ignoring it. But there were also signs that he could not ignore. Like the veins traveling up his arms, so many veins which Harley’s prospective customers or donors had eyed that he had to wear gloves to work.

He kept quiet, most days. Trying to pull as much of the darkness into himself as to not set off and clash with the powers that the others were beginning to unleash.

Most of them would not have noticed the areas around them - the fact that they were beginning to take such a presence whenever they were around humans and Gods alike. A reverence for Hera had returned. The fear for him was creeping back into the back of their souls.

They didn’t have long before they would return home.

Which meant that this was the last chance for him.

“When did they show for you?” Hades asked as they neared the elevator, having shut the door completely behind him. They would be out of earshot, now.

Hermes sent him a fleeting glance and a smile that was nothing but a flash of teeth. “Since Poseidon and Aphrodite approached me. This city is filled with mortals - all of them with so many messages, so much want for experience that it is almost bursting at the seams.”

Hades didn’t need to mention his own journey. The Messenger God had seen the transformation. They didn’t talk about where it stemmed from - there was too much death in a city like this, the spirits wandering aimlessly around the world without a God to rule them and keep them in place.

He was going to change that. Somehow, when he ever got back, he would make sure that he at least would be able to survive the onslaught upon the Gods. If nothing else, then for the screams and pleas and mutterings that whispered in his mind, day and night.

Whether he was awake or asleep.

The ding of the elevator pulled him from his dreary thoughts. Hermes must have clicked it. They both climbed into the machine, letting themselves be carried downwards.

The spindly woman was waiting for them when they exited the elevator. Or at least it seemed so, in the way that she greeted them. There was too much wisdom, too much knowledge, too much pain in her eyes.

It hit him as she opened her mouth. He’d recognize the strength and power of that voice even if he was on the brink of Death.

“Evening, gentlemen.” With glittering eyes she regarded them, a hand twirling one of her white and gray strains of hair. Hades stiffened at the movement, slow and elaborate, even if the smile seemed genuine. “And where might you be going on this day of mysteries?”

Winter Solstice. She knew. And she was the one - she had to be. But-

“Why you seem to be in the best of states,” Hermes said, voicing the thoughts that went through Hades. There was danger lining the tone, a warning. But also something deeper - more fearful. “How many hosts have you gone through since we last saw each other?”

The laughter was wine on the tongue, but also the dust of a scripture long since forgotten, weaving its way into lungs. It cut off abruptly, leaving them in silence for a moment before the old woman continued.

“I am now Miranda,” she said, running a fond hand down one of her arms. Hades noticed her nails - too long and almost witchlike, yellowing around the edges.

Had they been like that a moment ago?

“You knew about this the whole time. But what could you possibly get out of us ending up-”

‘Miranda’ cut Hermes off with a flick of the wrist. She seemed to grow thinner in front of their very eyes, turning spidery and fickle. Light burned through her eyes, so bright that Hades had to fight the urge to look away.

“Hush now. You were always so quick to act - so foolish in your misadventures.” Her eyes clouded over as she looked at them, never really there in the present. A kind smile was sent their way and she blinked. The cloud vanished. “But there is no time for foolishness now. The others are fighting amongst themselves, but they are learning here. Something valuable. Something they should have learned millenia ago.

“I have watched worlds rise and fall, have watched gilded Gods form in all of their glory and then later decay.” The sharp intake of a breath, as if she lived through the horrors that she had seen once again. As if she had never really let go of the past. “You are young Gods, but you are already on your way towards the fall. And when you do, your people will leave you in the dust - material for myth and legends of old.”

The pause stretched on, and Hades realized that she was waiting for them to react. He sent Hermes a look that hopefully conveyed that he had this under control.

“Then tell us how we can avoid it. Let us rebuild better and stronger than we ever could have been without your guidance.”

Another of those laughs. Hades felt his senses dim, his tongue feeling bigger than his mouth, wool forming on his hands. Then she stopped, and it was gone.

“You can’t,” she said, and there was something in the stance - in the way that she talked. Something that Hades couldn’t quite place. At least not yet. “You will face the inevitable, and you, in all your glory of being the Gods of Old, will fall.”

A statement. One so grim that it turned Hermes away, sending him protesting the words. ‘Miranda’ held up her hand once again, that flick of the wrist holding more authority than even the bolt of thunder from Zeus.

It was a woman of thunder and earthquakes. One more powerful than the embodiment of any element. One that they would never be able to escape.

“You will be betrayed by your own. Friends will fall by the hands of friends. Families will break apart, destroyed by the very things that forced you together.” Even as she talked, her voice got more powerful, a crack of thunder outside pulsing in tact with her words. But her eyes were soft. “The very thing that defined you will bring you down. Perfection kills Gods.”

Then she whirled, moving into her apartment and slamming her door. But not before Hades got a view of the wink she sent his way. Not before he saw the fondness in her curled hands.

“Come,” he said to Hermes, starting down the hall without regard for whether he continued on with him. He would do this himself if that would be necessary. This had suddenly become more than a thing of lovers, and he would succeed whether it was predetermined to fail or not.

Because, as the humans had begun to instill in him, there was no such thing as defeat. Not when you were still standing, blood on your teeth but ready to fight.

“But she said-” Hermes began, interrupting himself with a string of curses that made Hades raise his eyebrows. He stopped and whirled, using one of his hands to steady the Messenger God who seemed to be moving a mile per minute.

“She did,” he said merely, trying to ignore the pain that went through him when Hermes flinched at the contact. Instead, he smoothly pulled back, turning on his heel once again, with a glance over his shoulder. “But I am not dead yet. And as long as that persists, I will do my damned best to make sure we survive.”

“We can’t go against the word of the-”

“Fucking shut up!” Whirling once again, Hades stared down Hermes, then took a step back, wide eyed. He matched the facial expression worn by the other, both of them wide eyed.

Hades had the feeling that ‘Miranda’ was smiling approvingly, her head pressed against the door of the apartment. Always there, always listening.

And it was really suicide. Going up against the Fates was something they simply could not do. It would rip them apart from the inside out, turn them away from what they had always been. What they would always be.

Before they had come here. And now, Hades was having none of it. The very mortal curse word that he had adopted was just the beginning. Of change.

Of renewal.

“Think about it. Think about how the mother of Achilles dipped him in the water, and even with the power of invincibility on his side, somebody found his weakness.” He drew in a breath, listing. His voice turned frenzied, the shadows writhing on the walls, beckoning for him to return to his Kingdom.

He was having none of it.

“Think about Hercules. Meleager, Cyrene, Diomedes. How did the mortals succeed in their impossible endeavors each and every time?” There was no stopping himself. He felt as if he belonged in Apollo’s chariot, forging on, carrying the sun until the end of times. “The odds were insurmountably stacked against them whenever they set out. But they forged on. With every defeat, they rose from the dust and grinded through the pain.

“It earned them favors from us. And I think that that was our greatest failure - we always recognized greatness in the mortals, but we never attributed them defeating the odds each and every time to their hope. We always saw ourselves as the saviors, the only ones who could make things right.”

Another pause as he wet his lips. The room had blackened completely, shadows blocking out every ounce of light, but Hades didn’t care. This was what they had missed - had been missing - for centuries.

“It’s time we realize what we have always lacked - it’s time that we cast aside the mantle of Gods until we are worthy of it again.”

This was what he was going to change.

With a final sentence that sent power rippling through the building, an earthquake building from his heart and spreading into the world, he balled his fists and stared down Hermes.

“It is time that we put our weaknesses on full display and then keep getting up as we fucking fix them.”

There was so much fear in Hermes’ eyes. As he twisted his neck, craning and moving as the shadows did, trying to avoid the stare of a thousand dead. He couldn’t of course, even with the speed of contemporary communication fuelling him, he would never be able to avoid the gaze of the dead around him.

They would forever be looking upon the living.

Finally, Hades' words seemed to get through to him, and he stilled. Not a muscle in his body moved, even the color changing that constantly was a part of his look came to a grinding halt as he nodded, a grim smile upon his lips.

“Then let’s teach these motherfuckers a lesson that they will not soon forget.” It was nothing more than a flinch that went through him when he reached out, placing his hand on Hades arm, the heat travelling up the appendage and into the cold eyes of the other man.

The world cracked, darkness spilling into him from a seam, pouring, filling him until he couldn’t breathe.

Just as quickly as it began, it was over. The darkness was still there. Hermes could feel it in every pore of his body, but unlike what he had thought, there was a warmth to it. Cracks that went through the mass, letting the light shine through.

It felt somehow so much brighter as it filled him from the inside out, darkness and light grasping for unity in a never ending dance. More, more, more energy than he had ever before felt was released into his body, his veins dancing with adrenaline as he gave the older God a grin that would have melted hearts.

“Let’s get this party started.”

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #13

Aaaaaaand here’s the second update of tonight. This is our 13th chapter (my fav number!) and I like it a lot because it takes a closer look at some of my favorite characters.

The First Chapter

Previous chapter

Next chapter

_________________________________

Of spells and schoolwork

It was an accident.

That didn’t make it less unfortunate. Or, well, like some of the others would have thought, less fortunate. 

Athena wiped her hands on her skirt, her flat shoes clattering as she kicked them away. The salty mixture in front of her had formed into a sigil. One that she instinctively knew, even if she would do her best not to. 

Today of all days. 

She didn’t know, but doing different experiments with texture and the general feel of different materials had the students listening more to her. At least some of them did. The ones that didn’t, she had prescribed with notebooks, to jot down their thoughts. Yet others used drawings or magnets, and some just stared into thin air. 

It didn’t really bother her, even if today had been a nightmare. Thomas and Arden had been in a fight - one that was much too hurtful for her to just let slip, and they’d been having dialogue about the impact of words for the last hour, drawing in experience from works and their impacts on the world.

Athena had frowned every time someone mentioned the scientists and philosophers of the Ancient Greeks. She’d had some … personal run-ins with most of them during her trips through the cities, and there was honestly not much to say about them. 

Or, so she thought. Because clearly, the deities had had a habit of judging mortals wrongly. 

Ah well, that mistake they would be able to change when they got home. Which Athena was beginning to hope would drag out. 

But apparently, the Fates had other things in mind. At least that was what seemed to be staring her right in the face, white powder and grains spilling down the table. Athena stared right back. 

And what was she supposed to do with this? It would evidently come down to it, she had no illusions about anything else. But she wasn’t prepared for it to happen so quickly. It had only been a few months, winter was barely settling outside, white flakes dribbling down from the skies as she turned her stare towards the window. 

“Athena, are you okay?” Aren looked legitimately worried about her, his forehead all scrunched up with worry lines as he looked at her. “Do you feel sick?”

Athena waved a hand, blinking a couple of times to get her eyes to focus once again. “I’m fine, Goddesses don’t get sick,” she said. 

He didn’t look convinced. 

Granted, there was a bit of a cold stirring in the pit of her stomach, but that came from the thing in front of her. It took her nothing more than a mere moment to commit the sigil to memory and then another for her hand to ‘accidentally’ wipe across it. 

That meant the conversation was finished. They would stay, at least for a little while. There was so much to learn here, so much to see, and she wouldn’t send them all back when they clearly needed to learn some of the lessons available here. 

The Fates knew she did. 

They must be laughing at her now. She used one foot to scratch at the itch that seemed to spread throughout her body, rubbing her calf with it. 

“I think we will pack up early today,” she said, her voice ringing out clearly in the classroom. There was a moment of stunned silence in which only a few of the students moved. “Go on, then. I will not be keeping you anymore.”

Then, after a few seconds. “Or would you rather that I simply give you work to do at home? I heard that you do so love the amounts that your other teachers saddle you with.”

That sent most of them almost running out the room, all of them smiling and giving her their goodbyes as they did. Aren didn’t move. 

“What is it?” Athena couldn’t keep the ice from her tone. She usually kept her cards close to herself, this was no different. They would learn. 

Aren coughed to clear up his throat. Athena suspected that it might be his way of showing nervosity, and she refrained from showing the tick that she knew was threatening to appear around her lips. 

“You just seem conflicted,” he said, finally, when she had thought that her patience would run out. She sighed in return, feeling the annoyance creeping up her spine. “Out of sorts in a way that I haven’t seen you before.”

Another dismissive wave of her hand. She was just about to dismiss him, the lie already lying in wait on her tongue, but as she looked at the pure curiosity and unmarred features, she turned. 

As if that could brace her for the words that were about to come out of her mouth.

“I am,” she said. A scowl had found its way to her face, the high ground of morality crumbling beneath her feet. “I have found something. Something that could make a lot of my - ah - friends very happy.”

A pause as she tried to formulate her thoughts, all the while cursing herself for it. Dramatics was usually not the way she went. 

“The trouble is that I find it better to keep it hidden from them, if nothing else then just for a little while longer. There is no doubt that they will eventually either find it for themselves, too, or, assuming I have been satisfied, will show them it myself.” 

She willed her hands to still, willed them to stop going for the hem of her skirt, willed her heart to listen to her. She became stone within stone. At least within herself, before she turned, facing the young man once again. 

“I would say,” he said, tasting the words, his face still crumpled in thought. With one hand, he tapped on the side of his thigh. “That it would be unnecessary to tell them right away. Gifts sometimes turn sweeter when they are given at the right time. But as with anything hidden, there can be a lot of anger involved when the ones you were hiding it from finally find out.”

When she didn’t answer, he gave her a lingering look before he grabbed his bag and went out the door. 

Athena didn’t go home until it had long since turned dark outside.

//

She didn’t know how the others had done. There were so many intricacies - so many things that she needed to know and to read and to understand. It was as if she was learning her spellwork all over again

Hera felt like she was getting old. Older at least, because of course she couldn’t actually get old, and-

Her mind had been running non-stop for at least an hour now, and she was beginning to get sick of it. But she had managed to do at least most of what she needed. Taking the little cash she had left from Julia’s generosity, she’d gone to the store to find fabrics. 

It didn’t take her long to make quick work of it, her fingers delving over the smooth material with a cunning that she even surprised herself with. 

Proud was an understatement. Especially when she looked at the site she had pulled up. One of the internet sites - something in which she could sell her work. Now she just needed to figure out how she was supposed to bring her handiwork into the screen of the computer and out to the people who spoke to her from it. 

That was the hard part. Especially when Ares and Aphrodite had been throwing each other dirty looks from across the room for hours . 

She was just about to snap at them, when Hades walked in. Shadows followed him as he passed through the room, leaving blessed silence in their wake. 

Hera swallowed her smile at his misery when Ares and Aphrodite promptly began cussing each other out again soon after, the immediate danger having claimed. 

She focused on Hades, glancing at the veins that spread across his body, turning impossibly darker as the rest of him turned impossibly paler with each day that went by. 

She’d noticed it herself as well - the shimmers that sometimes coated her skin, skirting along the curve of her collarbone when she stared at herself in the mirror of her room, trying to glean just the slightest bit of Godly power. 

Her fingers still worked as she watched the God of the Dead, never once misstepping. It had become a sort of second nature for her to weave and sew and make the things that she did. 

A cover was what it was. Something that others would think she focused on while she took notice of the room. 

“Say what you have on your mind, Hera.” Hades, apparently, wasn’t one to fall for such tricks. She wondered, briefly, if he ever did the same. 

When he worked at perfecting his latest punishments, the slivers of thorns still in place in his clothes from where Persephone had trailed her fingers, was this what he really did. She supposed she should have seen it before. Should have taken notice of the older brother with the soft mouth and tired eyes. 

Eyes that looked like her own deep brown ones, staring emptily at her each evening before she headed to bed. 

“Our powers are returning,” was all she deigned to say. It was on her mind, sure, but it would never be as simple as that. Hades snorted in return, something flashing within the depths of his eyes before he turned his back to her.

He held up his arm, twisting it this way and that, regarding the crisscross pattern of darkness that webbed across him. 

“I suppose they are.” He said. They listened to Ares and Aphrodite some more, and Hera refused to give in to the silence that seemed to press in on her ears, filling her with emptiness as they began to ring. 

At long last she gave in. 

“You are not eager to return?”

There it was. The unsaid beast between them. Home. This had, in some way, become their home. Hera, at least, felt more safe here than she had ever done. Somehow at peace with the world. 

She didn’t know how she would react if she was the one to get the full extent of her spellcraft back first. She was aware that the others would look to her - she was the most well versed in trickery and the sorts - but she would not know whether she would let them in when she finally reached full power again. 

Something inside of her was snapping apart. One of the parts teetering very close to the edge of insanity, the other on something else. Something far more dangerous. 

Hades ripped her out of her thoughts with a huff, his eyes lighting up when he started speaking. 

“I am eager to get back to Persephone again. To tell her about the wonders of this world - about the ingenuity of the people she governs and the world that will once be the land beneath her feet.” 

So much danger in those sentences. Hades was walking along the edge of the knife, narrowly avoiding getting himself cut. He twisted, stared her down with a steady gaze that contained no malice, and Hera found herself smiling. 

A tentative one that one just managed to quirk the sides of her lips upwards, and it was a wholly involuntary thing that poked and prodded at her until she let it out. 

“I can understand that,” she said, voice rough with the promise that could have been given to her. She felt the cracks opening up in her facade at the sight of what stirred in Hades’ dark eyes. “And I hope that you will see your beloved soon.”

It was something other than pity that shone in them. Something she could not understand, but rather felt as it seeped into her, leaving lingering touches to what remained intact of her core. She let it, for a moment.

Then she shut herself down as she turned to her work, and felt Hades do the same on the couch. 

It was only much later that she realized what the map of crisscrossed webs she had woven looked like. 

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #9

Hello my stars, here’s an update that’s a tiny bit late due to personal reasons. 

This time, we take a closer look at Ares and Athena, and boy, did I have a lot of fun with writing both of these scenes. Enjoy!

TW // Mentions of suicide, war, self harm and death

The First Chapter

Previous chapter

Next chapter

_________________________________

What comes around, goes around

They hadn’t seen what he had seen. He didn’t care that he was the idiot of the group - the one who did not know to think before he spoke, the one who could not understand when they talked and strategized. 

It had always been like that, with Ares hanging back while the others worked at their scheming. And it wasn’t like he couldn’t do it, per se. More like he was unfit for the role - unlike Athena, he waged wars with strength more than he did with cunning. 

Brute force would always be enough if there was enough of it. 

Well, until he found the ones here. 

It hadn’t taken him long to whittle away from the conversation, making sure to bring plenty of leftovers with him, packed crudely in aluminium foil and plastic bags. 

Those he dropped off at the shelter for the homeless that he had come upon, the employees regarding him with curiosity, the temporary inhabitants with suspicion and a slight bit of fear. They could feel it, more than most. 

Exposure to war did that to you. 

It was something that he recognized, even if he hadn’t realized it before he was drawn to the place for the fourth or fifth time. Something that should have been so very obvious but at the same time not. 

And it was coincidentally the same question he got when he entered the mental health facility, Urel asking him in that bored, dead tone that he liked to use. Ares didn’t mind, he could feel the emotion churning beneath, the war that waged below the surface, and he knew that another soldier lending silent support was enough. 

This time, however, he felt the need to speak. For maybe the first time there, he opened his mouth instead of listening silently. 

“I keep coming back because I inhabit war,” Ares said, as if that would answer the question. Urel sent him a look of bewilderment, one that flashed before his eyes before he could quench it, curiosity in its wake. Then the flat walls returned, the guardedness.

“An awfully bold statement,” he drawled, swinging his legs fully up on the uncomfortable sterile-looking sofa. His back was now turned to Ares as he fiddled with a piece of cloth in his hands. “And one that doesn’t quite make a lot of sense.”

Ares smiled grimly. “I am war, and war is me. I thought, before, that it meant the war on the battlefield. That my body would never be at rest - always looking for the next victim, the next living creature for me to shred into.” He paused for a moment, looking at his hands, aware that some of the others were listening, too, even if they acted like they weren’t.

“I was wrong. War isn’t something that happens on the battlefield, for all to see. There is war everywhere. Within and without - and I was too blinded by my own glory to recognize that.” A sigh, as he readjusted, bones aching in his body and his soul seemingly churning in his chest. “It is more than the shedding of blood. More than what we can see when we judge people based on their scars. Because war isn’t limited to the body. 

“War tears into the soul, weariness all-consuming as it hungers for more each day. And if you do not fight it, you will long for the embrace of death. If you do, however, it becomes a long, slick climb out of the chasm that it threw you in. And each day, you will think that you get closer to the light, and each day, it will elude you.”

Here came the bitter laugh. The sounds that ripped out his throat, raw and angry in nature. Shards of glass biting into the insides as it did. “Because this war can never be won. You are fighting an enemy that is your equal in every way, and the best outcome is the constant struggle as you do your deadly dance.”

Another laugh that echoed his own, this time with less emotion, came from Urel. The man sat up, staring at Ares with his gray eyes that seemed to fall into his eye sockets with the black that surrounded them. 

“You have been here for what? Four, no five times now?” Another laugh, his fingers wringing themselves into his shirt, the fabric clutched between them. “And this is the poetic kind of shit you spew? Man, oldtimer, I thought you would be fun.” 

And yet what was that? Behind those eyes? Ares felt it in his bones, the slight glimmer of hope. The sensation of drifting further away from the blade of the knife that lay ready, each night. 

That was the thing that he was here for. If nothing else, then winning a war was something Ares knew how to do, even if he couldn’t quench the thirst of the one that brewed within him. 

Urel took him from person to person. Glenn, with the kind eyes and the marks running up and down his body - a different kind of scars than those inflicted by others, but a terrible kind nonetheless. Then Sally, the girl with the manic laugh and ice in her eyes, opposites colliding in the paintings she fondly showed off. There was no mention of the sleepless nights where she lay rolling, waiting for the next sign of death. Rosa, with the love for animals, and the foreign voices laughing in her throat. Laurel, the boy that hid as they approached, fear bristling in his voice along with pride when he spoke of the blankets and projects for the others. 

It didn’t matter that they were fighting unwinnable wars, Ares decided. He would make sure that they won anyway, that they stayed here, in this strange time. If nothing else then just to quench the thing that drained away at his own insides. 

And so he worked, conversing with the staff when they made their rounds, but spending all the more time among the people there. The ones who wanted help, but who were also such wild, multifaceted creatures. 

He had never known that mortals could experience such things. Had never before seen the courage it took each day to keep on living when your own mind told you to let yourself perish. 

There were soldiers here, some of them braver than the ones on the battlefields. Most of them more clever - having found the tiny bits and pieces of them that helped them survive each day in their own personal hell. Knitting, painting, writing, training, meditating. All of them powerful in their own right.

None of it helped him, and he tried not to think about it. The least he could do was not to glare when they showed their support of each other, love finding its way into their hearts when Ares’ stayed empty, ever the slave to the emptiness and roiling darkness that inhabited him. 

The least he could do was to let them love without judgement. 

This wasn’t exactly what Athena had planned. And compared to how many times her plans did pan out, this was a fallacy. Not one that she anticipated on returning to, but one that had been unexpected enough, nevertheless, to have her stumped in the classroom. 

There was nothing wrong with the room per se - the curtains were dull and see-through, something which bothered her to no end when she wanted to use the school computer. The tables were set up in the most boring and straight manner. 

In truth, she really couldn’t blame the teenagers in there for being bored out of their minds. The room just stifled anything even remote to learning. 

Which was why, when she entered it the next time, she’d brought reinforcements. Now was the time to test them out. 

“Morning class,” she said, whipping into the room, three large bags slung over her right shoulder, something called a ‘bean bag’ on her left. She still wasn’t quite sure what it was for, but she needed a punching bag if something went wrong. 

And there was a strict ‘no hitting the students’ policy at the school. Actually, she couldn’t hit anyone, even if they were being dumber than Ares. Life was unfair. 

Scattered mutterings echoed her greeting, only half the class there. The rest would trickle in shortly, she’d learned. Something about showing off carelessness. 

Athena didn’t much care for carelessness. 

It was a heavy thump that echoed in the small room as she set down her bags, going over to close the door at the same time. Then she locked it, just to be sure. 

She didn’t say anything, instead working on unpacking the seemingly limitless things that she’d brought with her. She was teaching this and that, and honestly, she had no idea what she should really be teaching. Athena would have thought that the school would check up on her background, or perhaps even give her more information than simply ‘ancient studies’.

One thing she had found, however, was that her world was part of the ancients. At least in this time, it was. Something which might have irked her just a little bit - how dare they call her ancient?

Ah well, that was a discussion for another time.

When she was done, she plopped herself firmly on top of the desk, crossing her legs as she did so. Then she stretched. Some watched her, others were engrossed in their electrical devices, with no care for time or space. 

“I have the feeling that this is your favorite subject,” Athena said, bringing up her spear and twirling it in her hands, curling her fingers around the ancient marks there as she did. So much power, hidden within a mere tool. “And I have the feeling that many of you simply took it because it would be ‘easy’. An easy score for your future life, readily forgotten when you move on from here.”

A few nods, some murmurs of the ones who completely disregarded her. She could work with that. Gesturing towards one of her bags, she glanced down, making sure that Minerva, the owl that had taken to her for this journey, stayed down there. 

A no pet policy was also part of the place. One that she was, admittedly, violating every day, but also one that she knew wouldn’t get her in trouble. Minerva was magical - none of the students could be allergic to her, which meant that it shouldn’t be problematic. 

“I promise you, that if you will give me the time of day, this can be much more interesting than what you would think,” she said, hopping onto the floor and picking one of the helmets she had stolen from the others. There was also one of the fabrics that Hera had been sewing away at. 

She was sure that none of them would miss them for just one day. 

Tossing the helmet to one person, another to the next, she began talking about the way it was made. How the forgeries worked, steadily molding the iron into the shapes they saw. Then she went on to speak of Hephaestus and his work.

Until at last, she couldn’t hear herself over the talking of the students, each and every one of them having lost interest in her story. Some tried to follow it, others were distracted by the lines that ran across Ares’ helmet, and yet again others seemed to not be bothered by her.

Athena realized that she might have been droning on. So she tried for another approach.

“Do you know why it is important to learn from the previous civilizations?” she asked, loosening her stance to seem smaller, less intimidating to those who were still listening. “Yes - what’s your name?”

The one who had held up his hand seemed panicked that she had actually picked him, and he sputtered for a moment, the thing turning into a cough before he could speak again. Athena felt her eyes go soft, a smile in themselves.

“I-,” he tried, then corrected himself. “My name is Alan. Because it is important to know where we come from?” It was more question than answer, but she took it, building upon it.

“You’re not quite wrong Alan,” Athena replied, letting that mischievous smile shine through. She let a hand run through her hair, loosening it and making the already frizzy bunch seem wilder. “But come down here, would you? Then I’ll demonstrate.” 

At the hesitation that he showed, she continued. “Another one can also try it out, if you would rather not.” 

And that seemed to get him to go. He moved from his seat, walking slowly towards her, and when he neared, she held out her spear. More were looking now, curiosity lighting up the room, one mind at a time. 

“Go on,” she said, jiggling the weapon in the air. Alan turned a bright red in response, but his back was turned towards the class, hiding it from the rest. She gave him an encouraging smile. 

As soon as he took it from her, she spread out her arms, gesticulating with as much energy as she could muster. Energetic, positive, passionate. That was what she was trying to convey.

“What you must understand is that we do not only learn from the ancients what we did wrong or right - we cannot merely look at ancient scriptures, too hard for anyone but the archeologists to decipher.” Her smile brightened, and she moved closer to the class, as if this was some kind of shared secret, just between them. “Truth be told, much of the smithwork and metal work that is done today derive from the ancient art. If you want to find quality, you go to the workers who have honed and perfect what the people before them did, thus turning ancient into modern.

“And what you might not realize,” she said, turning to look at Alan as she spoke. “Is that sometimes, there is more to the ancients than we ever knew - than we will ever know. Powers at work which will not fail, that will still be forging the world a thousand years from now on.”

Then she whispered. “Throw it.” 

Alan gaped at her, a sputtering coming out of him as he did so, and she held up a hand. 

“Throw it behind you,” she repeated. “Focus on a piece of the back wall and throw the spear. Trust me.” 

Athena turned, speaking to the whole class again. “These powers cannot be explained. And it might sound like pure fiction, but sometimes, all you have to do is focus a little and believe.” 

She really hoped that it would be enough for the kid to do as she asked. He wasn’t particularly stubborn, but on the other hand, not very reckless either. But that feeling that she had gotten before, when she had picked him out, it was still there. 

A burning in his heart and mind. Wit whetting itself on curiosity and cleverness, building as it did. Each day, something new. Each day, something learned.

Thunk.

And she knew he had done it. The smile that lit up her face could have been described as the smile of a devil, but Athena didn’t believe in such a thing. If this was anything, then it was the smile of a woman who saw her wide-eyed students - who felt their curiosity. 

“Alan, do you have any prior expertise with spears and spear throwing?” Athena asked, turning sideways to glance at the young man. There was a shock to his face as he shook his head, one hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. “What were you aiming for?”

“The white circle on the scrapboard.”

Ah, she’d seen that one. It was about the size of a palm and the perfect target for him. She didn’t need to ask whether he’d hit, the gasps of the others told her as much. 

“How do we know that you haven’t just trained this with him?” One of the girls asked, suspicion trailing in the wake of her voice. Athena sent her an award-winning smile, holding out a hand. 

She’d read about this in one of Julia’s books. The Norse Gods and Goddesses, with the Thunder God and the hammer that always returned to his hands. It would be a neat party trick, she’d thought. 

Well now was the time to test that. 

Electricity seemed to course through her for a moment, each one of her nerves alight with the power of it as she connected to the curiosity in the room. If there was enough, she should be able to channel some of her old power, making it easy for her to get back the weapon. 

Five seconds went by. Then five more. Red crept up the side of her cheeks as she stood with her arm outstretched, fingers ready to grasp it. In frustration and defeat, she honed in on Alan, feeling the synapses that lit up in his brain - feeling the sheer unrivaled wonder that coursed through his system still. 

Undefeated. Just as she was. 

With a swoosh the spear ripped out of the wall, moving at breakneck speed towards her, tip forward. They would really need to train that, she thought as it slammed into her, the tip of it nicking her clothes when it turned, facing upwards.

“You might know me as Mrs. Pallas, but that is not merely my name.” The whispers that went through her student this time filled her with more of that curiosity, and she knew that she was on the right track. She had their attention. 

“I am Athena. Goddess of Wisdom and War, and I will teach you about ancient civilization if that is the last thing I do - Because I would hate to see you pass up on a chance at learning.

“So if any of you feel like you still aren’t inspired for this class, then you are welcome to leave right now.” Her smile would have powered a million suns as none of them left, each and every one of them focused fully on her. “Good, then let us commence.”

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #11

Hi peeps! 

This was a pretty emotional chapter for me - I’ve been feeling like this for a while, and it felt oddly fitting that the Deity of Love would feel something like that. 

Ah well, enjoy!

TW // Implied suicidal thoughts, lack of self confidence, lack of self worth, implied anxiety and depression.

The First Chapter

Previous chapter

Next chapter

_________________________________

The thing of ice that no one ever saw

It doesn’t take a whole world for glass to shatter.

If there was anything that Aphrodite had leaned, it was that. Glass, one of the most beautiful of materials that could, if held correctly, light up the world with its beauty. All it needed was a little encouragement, a little heat, and then it could be shaped into a kaleidoscope of things. 

Glass was a thing that could take its smooth edges and run them over you, and you would always lean into the touch, even when the cold had stunned you at first. 

And then, after a while, you would start to live with the cold. You would grow accustomed to the smoothness and the beauty of it, and then you would never see it for what it was again. Because no one ever saw beneath the beauty of the thing.

No one ever waited for the glass to shatter. 

When it did - oh how people never foresaw the destruction that it could form. The fear that it could forge. Shattered glass, windows destroyed by the power of mallets and cannonballs. Pain and fear and blood and dirt careening across the broken surface of the world.

The glass was left broken, yes. But it always saw fit to take something of yours, too. A shard of glass could be devastating for someone - especially if they were mortal. It could pierce vital organs, or, if small enough, create complications in lungs and eyes and things that were too precious for even lovers to touch.

Aphrodite didn’t know whether they were thinking of themselves or Ares anymore, but it didn’t really matter, did it? 

No matter what, they ended up broken, on the floor in some way. Whether they were one or the other. Whether they would be the class showering among people or the mortal who would somehow become impaled. 

The result was always the same. 

It was those thoughts that roiled inside them as they moved around the house. As they worked to make the space in which they were supposed to live just a little bit more hospitable. 

Hera wouldn’t care. Wouldn’t help either. They had been through this once before - having to make something of themselves when they had nothing. Having to take what they were given. 

Aphrodite had been lucky that they had been given to Hephaestus. Because there, they gathered all of their broken pieces, working, day after day, to patch themselves up. Hephaestus had been patient. 

No, that wasn’t the right word. Hephaestus had not been anything; had not expected anything from them. Had given them the time and space needed, only providing them with the materials to do so. 

They hadn’t noticed that they were broken until they had completely rebuilt themselves. With support, yes, but never more than that. It was a feat that Aphrodite would always name as their best strength. The thing that made them the most proud. 

Because what was love without self love? 

They could feel it here. It was partly why they’d gained so much of their power so quickly. Each day, Aphrodite felt their power grow, each day, as they wandered through the streets, hungering for the love that seemed absent. 

Because there was not much traditional, conventional love, as they knew it. These loves were so much different, so much more vibrant. Shining with all the colors of the rainbow - love between women, between men, between those who had genders and those who didn’t. Love that was much more than that of the flesh and then the simple, yet powerful kind of love that lay in the flesh. 

But most importantly; the love that seemed to course through so many more. So many more accepting this part of themselves, casting away the old mantelpieces as they did so. 

Self love.

Aphrodite had found, long ago, that this was the most powerful form of love. Hephaestus, with his limp and the hotness of the forge to keep him company on the long nights had found this before any of the other Gods. He had been able to teach Aphrodite, silently, to love themselves. 

Had shown them the cyclops, each one working away at the craft that they loved so much, almost as much as the great Smith himself. had shown them the time and time again when they collapsed on the floor, ripping themselves apart with bare and bloody hands. 

Then, he had taken their hands in his, kissing their bloody knuckles all the while. Not in any way that made them feel obligated to take the step further, just rather letting the contact settle into their bones. Two words aching in Aphrodite’s chest. 

Not Alone. 

And that had been the first time. They had not realized that until after the ordeal, when they’d cleaned up and come to dinner with the Smith for the first time since they got there. 

It had been the first time that they were not alone, and it had nothing to do with the Smith. That, they had first found much later, because then, they’d been intrigued by the savior with the rumbling voice - thinking that they had not been alone because they had been with him. 

No, later, when Aphrodite had almost finished pulling their broken pieces together - forming something that resembled what they had once been, complete with pride and anger and jealousy and insecurities that ran deep. 

There had been something wrong, then. A slip of the finger on the trigger, as could be said now. Hephaestus had snapped - something about the Gods on their pedestals above. Something about the cruelty and fury that was not right-

neverrightneverright

- something that was churning and churning and churning in their mind until they split themselves open once again. Until they opened themselves to Hephaestus, a sigh escaping their lips as he beheld the sight. 

That was when they had realized. This healing - the wonders that they could do. This playing pretend with the old world. Well, suffice to say, they had found that glasswork could be a fickle thing, especially when they would need to use open fire to mold it. 

Luckily for them, they had the one with the most experience in that field by their side, and Aphrodite had not hesitated to ask when they needed confirmation. When they needed approval and when they needed advice. All of it had gone into the building of something new.

The shaping of a new soul. 

The other Gods and Goddesses would never know what had happened, in the firelight by the forge. Would never know why they opted out from parties, suddenly too occupied with their ‘husband’ to do anything but stay in that prison. 

Aphrodite was more free than they’d ever been. Side by side, Hephaestus and Aphrodite went through the forges, and they learned of the names of the Cyclops - of the traditional design. Of the protective runes that were engraved in the equipment. 

They were born anew. 

And that all threatened to come crashing down the moment Ares walked in the door. The look on his face, the way that nothing seemed to have changed. 

When he saw Aphrodite, the only thing he gave them was a wide smile. Wider than what they had ever noticed before - as if they were old friends, reunited. Aphrodite put on a lazy grin themselves, feeling the uncomfort churn in their gut as they did. 

It took all of five seconds for Aphrodite to volunteer for kitchen duty, helping Julia and Hades prepare the food they were all going to be eating. All the while, they managed to send glares Hermes’ way. 

He knew what was going on and had deliberately not mentioned it. That, he would pay for later, when they were yet again at full strength. 

“You know about the other day?” Julia said, her voice low in the opposite end of the kitchen, standing side by side with Hades. Aphrodite might not have been able to hear them, had they not yet regained some of their power, but as it was now, they buckled up and listened. 

Words could do a whole lot of damage, and it was always important to have plenty to spare. Especially words about other people. Rumors, in any world, could be some of the most devastating, Aphrodite knew that first hand. 

The sigh that came out of Julia startled them, however. There was pain and sorrow and quite a bit of anger, all mixed into that little show of emotion. Focusing on their cutting of the vegetables, they listened for the words that would no doubt accompany it. 

“I’ve been thinking,” Julia began, hesitation dripping from the words, thick as honey. The water turned on, then off again. “That maybe I should have done better. That there was something that I missed. I have been awfully absorbed in my own life, and I think that maybe Kenneth was right in pointing that out.”

A laugh, bitterness now coating it as well. It rang hollow in the room, as if it came from her chest, bouncing off the roof of Julia’s mouth as it exited. 

“I mean, if I can’t take the honest feelings that they have, then how could I ever consider myself their friend? I would think that I would know how to take criticism, but I acted like a spoiled child when the most meagre of ammunition was pointed my way.”

A long pause thereafter, and Aphrodite was becoming sick with curiosity. Something about friends - other mortals. Something that could be appealed to when Aphrodite would need to get Julia to make certain alleviations for them. 

Then the shadows crept in. “You are not wrong to react with emotion when they express theirs,” Hades said, and Aphrodite concentrated, now, on the dead that crawled across the walls. “Emotions are not wrong. Wrongness is refusing to change - refusing to make compromises where compromises are due.

“However, that does not mean that you should compromise with yourself. Compromise with morals and values will never amount to anything but life in strife and pain. And if your friends are asking you to do that, then they are not friends at all. Then you do not simply fit together.”

Aphrodite tried their best to keep the surprise from their face, lowering their head to hide it. The surface they stared into was smooth - smooth enough for Hades to catch a glimpse of their reaction, if he was adamant. And Hades was always adamant.

But it was the most amount of words that they’d heard him say in forever. It seemed that on Olympus he’d been quiet. Simmering, but eager to go home. Be over and done with the things his brothers pulled. 

It had been something to hold on to for him it seemed. A shield against the world when the world seemed to push in, shattering at him. A shield that Aphrodite had not managed to possess in the past. 

Age and cleverness had eluded them time after time. But not anymore.

“If I may?” they asked, drying off their fingers in a nearby towel. Perhaps announcing yourself to the ones you had just listened in on was not the smartest course of action, nevertheless, the nod of Julia’s head made them hopeful. 

“There is much to be said about sacrifice and compromise,” Aphrodite continued, each word careful. Almost tentative. They felt the ripples of them within themselves, wind blowing at the glass that they had so carefully constructed. 

They hoped that the glass would be stronger for it. 

“But there is also much to be said about the nature of love. Love can hurt and love will likely hurt. Love is based on cooperation, but it needs to be from both sides.” Aphrodite paused, taking in a breath as they felt their voice start to shake - a steeling resolve forcing them to go on. “More importantly, love needs to be, first and foremost, self love. If you do not love yourself, it becomes infinitely harder to love others. Not impossible, but there will always be that one part of you that will question it.

“Whether you’re good enough, whether you deserve this. All packed into neat sentences like ‘do you think I look fat?’ or ‘I am just being a bother, aren’t I?’.”

It took all that they had to keep going, using their hands to gesture with, never having them stay still lest they show the two the trembles that went through them. “It is all the same. And approval and affirmation are good things, but you will also have to run it by yourself. Have to get the affirmation that you need from within your own mind, because otherwise, you will never feel worthy of being loved.

“And being unworthy is really the biggest lie that you could ever tell yourself, but it is so easy to do so. So hard to not fall into that trap.” Aphrodite couldn’t hide the tears that formed in their eyes as they whispered the last few words. “So many have before you, and too many will after you. Don’t fall into the trap. Because I know I have.”

They turned around, hiding their face in their hands as they scrubbed at their eyes. This wasn’t supposed to happen - they were supposed to be their old self, just right until they came home to Hephaestus. The others didn’t understand, they wouldn’t understand. 

Because nothing hurt more than being rejected. Most of all when it was by yourself. When one day, you would wake up and realize that you would never become that thing that had been so clear in your mind. 

And the beast in your mind would always be better left alone. Or better yet, thrown out of a window with fire licking at its shins. 

A hand was placed on their shoulder, and they twisted their neck, just slightly, to peer up at the person. It was a tentative smile on Julia’s face, one that signified the bad impression Aphrodite had left on her at first. 

It was supposed to be that way, they reminded themselves. They were supposed to be seen as vain and shallow and fickle for just a while longer. But something in their mind might have cracked a little bit, for it whispered. 

For all of eternity. 

And where was the lie? Aphrodite might be able to hide behind Hephaestus - behind his reputation and the things that would be accepted in the eyes of the other Gods and Goddesses, but they would never be able to come out. Could never be fully themself. 

The thought brought fresh tears to their eyes, and they turned their head away again when they saw Julia shifting on her feet, uncomfortable in their presence. 

“Look, thank you - for the advice, for everything, really.” Frustration was now the thing that covered the air, along with quite a bit of longing, the latter of which Aphrodite always ignored, mostly because it was a side effect of the element they commanded. “And I’m really sorry that you’ve gone through that, too. Shit, I thought that you were immune to such things. You are the freaking Goddess of Love - I didn’t know that you’d had self-confidence issues.

“Oh God, I’m rambling. But yeah, really sorry about that. If you ever need someone on the - y’know - outside of every complicated piece of mess that is going on between all of you deities, then don’t hesitate to come to me.” When Aphrodite turned around again, looking at the eyes that suddenly seemed giant on Julia, as if too much light came in and was reflected back at them, Julia smiled. “Just don’t do anything shitty in the meantime, please.”

There was no pity in them, though. Only sympathy and the knowledge. Julia knew what that felt like, Aphrodite could feel it in their bones. Hades, on the other hand, seemed cold as ever. Eyes regarding them without the tiniest of flickers. 

“I am sorry,” he said, finally. It was a poor echo of what had been said before, and he quickly turned away from them. “There are some of us that would benefit from banding together, it seems.” 

If Aphrodite hadn’t been standing like this, they would have taken a step back. The very voicing of such a suggestion was unheard of. Banding together would require them to get over their hatred of each other - would require them to find common ground. 

And what, exactly, would they band together against? What would be the big, common enemy against all of the Gods? Surely they were unstoppable in their advance, with no force that could ever put an end to them.

Nothing but themselves.

Aphrodite had the sinking feeling, as they exited the kitchen with a nod, thus leaving the other two to their devices, about what it was. 

And they weren’t sure that even all of the Gods together would be able to defeat such a monster.

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #12

I missed last week, so today, I’ll be updating with two chapters, giving you all twice the content this week and then we will be back on the previous schedule. 

I’ve edited a bit ahead, so it should be fine, and then it’s time to get writing again.

Just wanted to update you all: My mental health is doing much better, and it’s been a couple of rough months, but now, everything is kind of falling into place. 

So thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this story. It means incredibly much to me, and if you ever feel like commenting, reaching out, or reblogging, it would be a huge boost.

Thank you

The First Chapter

Previous chapter

Next chapter

_________________________________

When the wolves come knocking

There was a knock at the door. Not a particularly ominous one, but one that set Julia on edge nevertheless. She couldn’t possibly hide all of the Gods and their mattresses and so forth in less than five seconds. 

“Give me a second,” she said to the chattering Gods and Goddesses. Hermes was talking a mile a minute, Ares trying to chime in whenever he saw fit. Poseidon also seemed to be a real chatterbox.

Getting up might have been a tiny relief. Just the tiniest. 

“Evening,” Miranda said, the old woman standing on the other side of the door. There was a knowing smile on her lips - on that Julia had come to love during the past years she’d lived here. “How is it going, Julia?”

The question took her by surprise, but she quickly covered it with a wide smile of her own as she stepped outside of the door, not quite shutting it behind her. 

“I’m good,” Julia said. There was a flash in the woman’s gray eyes, and she knew that it had been the wrong answer. So she amended. “I mean, I’m finding it hard to cope. With the four clover not together anymore - moreover, it seems like I was the one to screw it up.”

Miranda knew far too much for her own good, it was always like that. The old woman poked her nose into stuff that she really ought not to with the accuracy of a raging bloodhound. 

It was exhausting, Julia told herself. It was nice, her mind replied. Treacherous thing.

With a sigh, Miranda put a hand onto her shoulder, her crooked back popping as she stretched to reach Julia. Encouragement seemed to simmer in the air around her, and Julia frowned. 

“There is much to be said about friendships,” Miranda said. Her voice always sounded about ready to crack - something ancient and papery floating between them, brought forth by the words. “But one thing is for sure; it requires the effort of all parties. You cannot have a one sided friendship which lasts.”

Julia nodded in response, her smile turning teensy as she did. Her hands were balled by her sides and she wanted, most of all, to just go inside the apartment and sleep. And she might not even make it that far, because the floor was looking more appetizing by the minute. 

“I know, Mad.” The nickname had been formed after one of their many run-ins, and Julia was sure that Miranda actually was mad. She always knew too much, always saw too much, to be anything but. Thoughts that she didn’t want stirred in the back of her mind, drawing connections where none were due. “It’s just … “

“It will always be hard,” Miranda said, taking over from where Julia trailed off. Poked her once in the chest just to make sure that it went through, the smile trailing her lips again. “But if you find the right connections, it will also feel right. Right doesn’t make easy, and people aren’t easy-”

Julia could second that. 

“-and there will always be that one part of you screaming to give up, to give in. And that’s the beauty about humans, isn’t it? There is alway the fight.” 

“Which fight?” Julia frowned, something that triggered a wider smile from the woman, secrets fluttering on broken wings behind the film of her eyes. Julia was never sure that she could see her properly.

“The fight for something better,” Miranda simply said, as if that would explain anything. This wasn’t a fight for freedom - Julia wasn’t caught under some form of authoritarian rule like so many of the dystopian novels and films that were circulating around on the internet. 

She was just Julia. In an ordinary life that didn’t require much fight. Everything was the same, would always be the same. 

At least from the moment that she managed to get the deities out of her life. 

“Cherish what you have while it is there,” Miranda said, turning on her heel. There was a flicker of amusement that singed Julia’s heart. The old woman always did that - more akin to a cat than a human. When she was done with a conversation, she was done. “Because soon enough, you won’t be sure that you’ll ever see it again.” 

The cryptic words had less impact when Miranda needed to wait for the elevator because her joints couldn’t bear to take the stairs anymore, and Julia had the absurd feeling of a laugh crawling up her spine. She promptly clamped down on it, and waved at Miranda as she went into the elevator. 

A weird visit, but not an unwelcome one, Julia thought. Even if there was a sense of uneasiness that stirred in her gut at the words. Something was missing - a piece of the puzzle that she didn’t quite yet have access to. 

At least when she opened the door to the apartment, she was greeted with the same old. That is, chaos and bickering and arguments having been dug up. Old kills and hunting trips and the stealing of one another’s clothes, anger shining on their faces. 

Julia sighed and went into her bedroom, giving Hades a message to pass on. They’d have to clean up today, she wasn’t taking anymore of this. Julia had a conversation to brace herself for mentally. 

A month would have been enough time for the others to cool down. Hopefully, it wasn’t too much time for her to come forth with her apology. The swallowing of pride was a bitter thing, and it had taken her longer than she’d liked to get it over and done with. 

Hopefully, tomorrow would be a better day. 

//

Tomorrow was not shaping to be a better day. 

The others had been long gone, Hades and Hermes before the crack of dawn, perhaps even taking Poseidon with them. Or he’d gone down to tend to some more of the oceans, perhaps picking up trash by the seashore. And Hera was off to somewhere, something that on any other day would have been nagging at Julia’s mind. 

Today, she was determined to make the best of what Miranda had told her and work for her friendships. If only she could get over the disaster that was brewing right here, in her living room. 

“That’s the thing is it not?” Aphrodite said, face curling, a mixture of pity and disgust forming on their lips. “You cannot love, Ares. You never could - not even when we ran through the meadows, the summer breeze hot in our lungs.”

It looked as if Ares had taken a physical blow; he stepped back, blinking rapidly as he careened. Tried to find his balance. Aphrodite took a step forward - a predator closing in on its prey.

“We were siblings, loved each other more than anything,” they continued. Their voice had deepened, the soft flower petals of the sound turning sharp and jagged, a snarl replacing the soft tones. “Or so I thought. I thought that when all else was done, we would still have each other. Would still back each other up no matter what.

“But as it turns out, the God of War is incapable of such things.”

A thrum - a pause short enough for a heartbeat to sound and at the same time long enough for that same heart to shatter. And it truly was a look of shattering that passed over Ares’ face. 

The look of a person who remembered what caused them to stand on the edge of that bridge. The final straw before they would let themselves fall, careening over the edge and into the void.

It was also a look of shattering that crossed Aphrodite - but another one entirely. This was the look of a person who had given and received nothing in return, watching as their love-built foundation crumbled beneath their form. 

“There’s no need to say that,” Julia tried, holding up a hand to stop the Deity. It only caused the blonde to whirl, pink and blue and green streaks lighting up their hair, each of their long fingernails a different shade of neon as they pointed at Julia. 

“You know nothing of reality,” they said, brows furrowed and sea coursing through their veins, ripping up a storm. Julia was glad that they were alone in the apartment, because it could have turned grim with the other Gods there.

A slaughter unrivaled in bestiality, she’d guess. 

“Parading around your little apartment, setting us - the Deities of the world - up to ‘better’ ourselves on your behalf.” Aphrodite made air quotes with their fingers, stepping closer to Julia with every word spoken. And truth be told, Julia did feel the suffocating wrath of the Deity. The power that was slowly returning to them all rattling through their veins. “Well guess what, little human. We are not mortals - we are immortals. Beings of unfathomable power who cannot be changed. 

“These powers - the War and Love and Cunning and Witchcraft. They run in our blood. So much so that nothing you will ever do or say will be able to change the very nature of our beings.”

Aphrodite opened their palm right in front of Julia, and Julia could only look as it turned shimmery, fading in and out of view for a moment. She could feel the power working at her mind, dazzling her to fall in love with the Deity. 

It took no more than a simple wave of their hand, and Julia knew she would do everything for them. 

Knew that she would die for them if that was necessary.

It took only that realization for the spell to stop working. Aphrodite was not powerful enough yet to determine Julia’s fate - none of the Gods were. And they had something to learn, yet.

So Julia stared down the Deity in front of her, looking into eyes that were impossibly blue - like the calmest of seas, untouched by man. 

“I would die for you,” she said, and Aphrodite merely laughed. A haughty thing that was impossible raw. “How is that any different from war?”

That took the smile off the Deity’s face. Julia used the pause to continue - used the baffling realization to bolster herself against the wrath that would be targeted at her in just a few moments.

“Love and war are interchangeably entwined. No one goes to war without love for something - the cause, killing, protection. There needs to be passion for such an atrocious thing to be done.”

Julia heaved in a breath, finding the dark eyes of the war God trained upon her, the embers smoldering by his hands. As if he did not notice them there - they were as natural as the instinctual desire to clench a hand, or to tap one’s foot against the floor. 

“And how about being at war with yourself? Ares has been drawn to the people at the mental care facility the last months - helping them battle against the war that rages in their minds.” Julia flicked her hair behind her, relishing in the way it moved through her fingers as the words churned in her mind, forming into sentences with the relief of the pause. “And being at war with yourself - that is also a form of love. Not one person can accept or even love themselves without going through struggles - and those struggles can be considered a battle within themselves.

“Actually, how dare you assume that love and war cannot be united. There is war in any kind of love - people do not just magically fit into each other’s broken pieces.” She knew that she was rambling. Monologuing somewhere around the place she should stop, the raging look on Aphrodite’s face told her that much.

But there was a light in Ares face that Julia had only seen the moment he stepped through the door after helping out at the clinic. She would keep that, even if it caused her own downfall at the hands of a vengeful Deity of Love. 

“You weren’t good for each other, and I get it - I really get it. That shit hurts. When friendships break apart and you’re left to pick up your own pieces.” Julia’s voice turned softer when she looked at Aphrodite. There was a brokenness and a sadness in those blue eyes, too. And the ocean seemed about ready to be spilled.

Growing apart was never fun. But sometimes, the only thing that stood in the way of reconciliation was a mutual insistence on not understanding and, more importantly, not accepting the other person.

Julia had been in that situation more often that she would like to admit.

“Ares, please take Aphrodite to the clinic,” she said after the silence began to seem suffocating. “I have the feeling that they might learn a thing or two about their own area of expertise - just as you did when you first got through there. Love and war does tend to go hand in hand, in a way.”

An almost imperceptible nod from Ares told Julia all she needed to know, and she hurried out the door, grabbing her computer on the way. Her jacket was already slung across her shoulders, and she had the feeling that the little clash between the two had delayed her more than it should have.

Well, she had allowed it to delay her more than it should have.

Julia half ran, half stomped down the street, as fast as possible in her beloved boots. Her friends would stall the clients if necessary. 

Besides, Yrene definitely had the presentation memorized, and if she landed this client, it might actually do her and her girlfriend some good, financially. 

Really, there was no reason for Julia to take it other than the client had asked to meet with her. Why, she didn’t know - there had been no actual subject or reason to the phone call she had received, but a prospective client was a prospective client, and she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

She was glad that they were still willing to cover for her, even if there was the sinking feeling of taking that came along with the request. Competent people, no doubt, but she’d asked so much of them and given so little in return.

That was what she was focused on changing now, she reminded herself. A quick detour into the nearby coffee-shop had her mood shifting, if slightly. The cashier was always kind, always welcoming and the smell of coffee and freshly baked bread had her sniffing in deep, satisfaction drawn in with her every breath. 

Julia came into work with four coffees and a whole batch of donuts. The donuts she set in the dining area, with a note that everyone should feel free to take one. The coffee she brought with her as she approached Katie. 

“Good morning sunshine,” she said, setting a coffee in front of the very groggy secretary at her desk. Katie glared at her for a moment before she sniffed the coffee. “No salt or licorice, I promise. Pure black.” 

It was all she could do not to grin from ear to ear as Katie drank greedily, then stuck out her tongue. 

“Ow,” she said, seemingly staring down the offending liquid. 

“Did I forget to tell you that coffee is usually hot?” Julia said, all innocence and doe eyes, and Katie moved her stare over to her. “I take it the meeting went well?” 

Katie answered with a hmph, but then remedied, her eyes darkening. “It would be better if we didn’t have the need for that SOB, in my opinion. But yes, she nailed it. He was even smiling as he walked out, a rare sight indeed.” 

“Good.” Julia shuffled a bit, ants suddenly running down her back, spiders crawling up her ribs and placing themselves on her throat. “Did they ..?”

It was a shaking of her head that met her, and Julia sighed, a hand clenching at her side. Then she relaxed. “I suppose I deserve that.”

“That for them?” Katie asked, completely ignoring her statement. She found such things silly - unworthy of mention or even answer, because Julia was throwing a pity party for herself. 

Julia nodded miserably, the pity party still raging on. 

“Not going to be enough,” Katie continued, and Julia rolled her eyes. As if she didn’t know that. It made the woman put up her hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay. Just saying.”

“I know,” Julia said, walking past her and into the closed off conference room. They’d still be in there, she hoped. “But I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve.” 

With a deep breath, she stood outside the door to the room. Steeling herself, feeling the jittering numbness spread throughout her, snakes in her belly as she did. She really hated this type of confrontation.

Strangers, she could handle. Jackass customers, too. And if anyone ever messed with any one of her family - whether by blood or by choice - she’d take them down without a second thought. Verbally, of course. 

But this was different. This was something she was screwing up, something she had the ability to further screw up. And she might hurt them. No matter what, there was residual hurt churning around their systems. No matter what, she would have to face them and see the anger or sadness or, worst of all, disappointment in their eyes. 

Her hand hovered over the handle to the door. It should be so easy. Just click it open and say what she’d spent all of last night practicing, even far after the others had gone silent, when she couldn’t sleep. 

Julia was just about to turn on her heel and say screw it all, when the door suddenly opened. 

“If you’re going to come in, then just do it,” Yrene said, mouth curving in a way that Julia could never quite interpret. “We’ve been watching you struggle for the last five minutes.” 

Ah. Julia’s eyes went to the floor. She’d forgotten all about the glass at the bottom, and with her signature shoes, she might as well have announced herself with a loudspeaker. 

There seemed to be no malice in the voice, nor the gaze, but Julia still smiled and entered the room with a bowed head, suddenly feeling too small for the world. Too small for herself. 

“I just came to give you this,” she said, holding the three cups out into the air, feeling one of them take them off her hands. 

Silence fell. Her heartbeat was trying to rip its way out of her throat, she was sure of it, the veins in her arms seemed to be bulging, and she stared into the floor instead.

“Well then, if there was nothing else.” It was Kenneth. And there was no little amount of anger in that voice. It flowed and moved, roiling like a living animal in the room. Julia felt herself flinch at it, ready to turn and move out the door - her whole body screaming at her to get out.

No, she tol herself, feeling her resistance fighting. She’d not walked over here to just give up. It doesn’t work like that. 

“There is something else,” she said, her voice no more than a whisper, and yet still managing to crack halfway through. “Actually, there is a lot more to talk about.” 

“I thought you were done talking to us,” Kenneth replied, and when Julia glanced at him, she saw the lines under his eyes. They seemed worse than they had a month ago. Somehow tallying up over the course of the time. “You seemed content on letting us deal with everything ourselves - just like you always do.”

Ouch. Okay, that stung. But she could work around that. For the purpose of her being here, she would do her best to quell the anger that threatened to take over the feeling of sadness inside of her. 

Why was it always so much easier to turn the emotions outward? She didn’t know how Olivia did it. 

“Stop,” said the woman in question, her voice softening as she looked to Julia. “What do you have to say?”

“I just …” 

Sorry doesn’t cut it. It was something that Yrene had said so many times, had imprinted upon her with every fucked up thing people did to her. So instead Julia said. “I am sorry. It isn’t worth much, but I am.” 

Welp, that was at all not what she’d rehearsed. It was messing with her - emotions all vying for her attention as hot tears of both anger and sadness sprung to her eyes. She forced her head up. 

“But what is worth more; I will do better. I realized how much I have been using you, and the fact that I didn’t see it sooner just doesn’t justify my actions.” She paused, looking to each of them as she mentioned them. “I am sorry that I didn’t come to the funeral. Sorry that I wasn’t there when you needed me by your side. Sorry that I haven’t been there every step of the way.

“I also need to tell you, however, that I have realized something about myself. I do not need as much contact as it seems like you do - I tend to pull into myself and not come crawling out until much later.”

She took a deep breath, a tremble going through her. If they wouldn’t understand this, then she’d have to leave them behind, at least for now. She’d have to be on her own. 

“I need time. And space. And I don’t always realize what you need without you explicitly telling me,” she said, a shaky laugh forming in her throat. It came out as a form of croaking, and her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know how much I can do to change that. I can certainly not change my energy levels - and I know that I choose to spend much on my work, but that is what I do. It’s all I know how to do.”

I will do better. Was what rang through her head. And not exactly as a form of doing better towards her friends. She’d try to do that too, but it was something else. Realization hit her; she’d do better to get to know herself. 

“You’re more clueless than I’d have ever thought,” Yrene said, a second before Julia was enveloped by a warm hug by the woman who seemed impossibly strong. It took her a few moments to gain enough awareness to actually hug her back. “Of course we’ll try again. We’re in this together, remember?”

Tears formed in her eyes, but Julia burrowed her head into the side of Yrene’s shoulder, trying to make her shoulders stop shaking. 

“You need to move over,” Olivia said, and Yrene looked up, tongue sticking out. “Otherwise I’m going to squish you two.” 

And then the oldest of them cannonballed into their hug. Relief flooded through Julia for a few moments until she looked up and saw the anger that was still very much evident on Kenneth’s face. 

“Don’t be such a prissy,” Yrene said, her eyes wary as she looked at him. Kenneth didn’t move, as if moving would have him unleash the thing that seemed to build inside of him.

“You come back here,” he said, almost physically shaking from the effort it took to restrain himself. “And you say a few words, and suddenly you’re back in? After all the neglect and all the egoistic shit you pulled on us, this is what we get?

“You guys are buying that crap? She left us. For a month. And would have likely not come back - you saw the hesitation. Nothing would have happened, had we not opened the door.” 

Slap after slap after slap, the punches rained down on Julia, and she felt her spine bending under the pressure. But she also felt the hands that clutched her a little tighter, even if Olivia was the one to move away from her. 

“Kenneth I’m sorry,” she said, whispering almost. But there was something in her voice that Julia hadn’t before noticed. A strength that must have been found during the time with her husband. “I’m sorry about what happened. but you’ll never get him back - and just because you feel abandoned by one person, doesn’t mean another would.”

“You cannot pull him. How dare you,” Kevin said before he stormed out of the room, not even bothering to close the door behind him. 

There was lighting in Yrene’s eyes when she muttered. “He’ll come around. He just needs time.” 

Olivia, to Julia’s surprise, was the one to say. “He damn well better. We can’t go around tiptoeing because he can’t put the past behind him. It’s been a year, goddamnit.” 

“You can’t force grief,” Julia said, taking a step back from the two. Yrene regarded her with slitted eyes, her choppy black hair framing them, making her look like some form of assassin, ready to go in for the kill. “He needs to face it, to work with it, yes, but you can’t force it.”

Olivia sighed, pulling her weight from one foot to the other, seemingly shifting in her own skin. “No, I suppose not. But that doesn’t make it alright to take it out over others.” 

There was a tenseness in their shoulders, as if they didn’t know how to react around her. As if Julia had become a stranger to them. 

“Let’s get out of this place,” Yrene said. She sent a wicked grin their way, sparkles and fireworks going off behind her eyes. Julia could see the plan forming in her head. “Our favorite place for lunch - let’s go there.”

“Your favorite place,” Olivia corrected, brushing away a stray curl, a huff of dissatisfaction coming from her at the sight of it. “We haven’t been there in ages.”

“Extra spicy challenge, then.” Julia did her best to match Yrene in wickedness of appearance, willing her eyes to glitter. “If you guys win, it’s on me. If not, we split.” 

She went for the door, holding it open as the two walked out, Yrene giving her a mock salute when she passed. It quickly turned into a pout. 

“You know we can’t beat your spicy.” Julia grinned from ear to ear, feeling the butterflies lessen and die out, one by one, in the pit of her stomach. “It’s not fair.”

It was a weight lifted off her shoulders as they gave her a smile, even with the glares that were coming from Kenneth from where he sat. Yrene and Olivia ignored him, and Julia did her best not to cast worried glances his way. 

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #8

Hello my Stars and welcome back to the family drama. 

This one is a bit of a filler chapter.

Ahh, there’s a bit of an explanation for what’s going on with their powers - if you believe it, that is. 

Anyway, have fun!

The First Chapter

Previous chapter

Next chapter

Bringing the family drama

It had taken them all day, but Hermes had finally given a clear answer. He would stay. He would not be there most of the time, but they could expect him to come back, to contribute. 

Julia considered that one a win.

Another win was that Harley hadn’t freaked out yet, like any ordinary person would have done. Of course, Julia and her family had never been ordinary, but Harley dealt with the guests being shipwrecked Gods a lot better than Julia had done.

The dog had woken up, and Hades hadn’t left its side from then on. It was female and was immediately dubbed ‘Spot’. Something which, in hindsight, was a little too ironic. 

Besides, you couldn’t just name your dog after another one of your dogs. That was the same kind of weird as naming your kid after yourself and then tagging on ‘junior’ afterwards, as if that made it better.

Nevertheless, Spot had now become part of their little household, and Harley assured Hades repeatedly that she would walk again. She was just very much drugged due to the pain. 

Tomorrow, she would be walking around again. But for now, they needed to tend to her injuries.

Meanwhile, Julia took the others shopping, promising to bring back clothes for the God of the Dead as well. A fire might have broken out, had she not done so. And even with the shiny new experience of walking through the mall that was nearby, Julia could still feel the tension - both between them and her.

She sighed, rifling through yet another set of shirts, holding some of the more professional ones up to Athena. It earned her a small smile and another shake of the head.

It had turned out to be a long list of ‘no’s from the goddess - no colors, no patterns, no see through, no itchy fabrics, no stiffness. And a lot of other things. Which left them with black and white shirts, none of them satisfactory enough as she tried them on, one after another. 

Really, it was a wonder that she had managed to get dressed for her job interview, because it was such a precise taste that Julia had long since given up, leaving her half-heartedly searching for something - anything - that would make the Goddess happy. 

“Got it.” 

Those two magic words sent more relief through Julia than should have been possible. Holding up a white and a black shirt, their designs not very different from the ones Julia had held up a moment before, stood Athena, a wide smile on her face.

“These are the ones,” she said. Julia couldn’t really tell the difference, but she didn’t care. Exhaustion seemed to have seeped into her bones. She thought she loved to shop, to browse, but this trip had cured her for that.

After that, it was child’s play to get out of the mall and back home. 

Where all hell had broken loose. 

The fire alarm was beeping as she entered her apartment, black smoke meeting her lungs. She coughed, waving a hand in front of her in an effort to remove the offending air from her lungs. 

It was a wonder that no one had called the fire department yet.

Julia hopped, reaching the button to mute it on the first try. She’d done so one too many times now, and it had almost become something of a second nature to her. 

Another part of her second nature was to never let Harley near the stove. Or the oven. Or the microwave. Actually, her sister had usually been placed outside of the entire kitchen - that particular incident with the fridge came to mind, and Julia shuddered, leaving the door behind her open.

Orion knew better than to leave, anyway.

It was a cautious trek to the stove, pushing Harley out of the way as she did so, Hades standing with something black and crumpled on a plate. In another life, it might have been a steak, but now it looked more like a mistreated piece of garbage. 

Both of them looked panicked, their eyes wide and wild. Harley whirled when she saw Julia, hiding something behind her on the counter. 

Or, as it turns out, actually just hiding the entire counter. Black streaks coursed through the plate, all of them branching out from the stove, spreads of white clouds forming on them as well. 

At a closer look, Julia found the whole stove partly covered in the stuff. Stuff which came from the fire extinguisher. Which was, incidentally the very large, very red thing hidden behind Harley’s back. 

With no other choice, Julia facepalmed. 

There was a spark of glee within her as Harley crumpled for a moment, her otherwise cheerful facade turning actually sheepish as she looked at her big sister. 

“No,” Julia said, throwing her hands in the air. They were adults, they would be able to deal with this themselves. And besides, her energy deposits were completely empty by now, and she desperately needed to sleep. “Just no. Clean this up and join me around the TV afterwards. I’ll whip something up after, but I can’t deal with anymore shit right now.”

It wasn’t as if she herself was a master chef that made culinary masterpieces. It was more like that she at least knew not to burn down a kitchen. And to add fuel to the fire, not to burn down someone else’s kitchen. 

The smoke disappeared down the hall with every second that passed. Julia tried not to pay it any heed, tried not to worry too much about her kitchen. 

It is going to be okay. 

The words had almost become her mantra. At least in the last ten minutes.

“Your wards and spellwork don’t do anything for fires made by morons in the kitchen?” she asked Hera who had plopped down next to her, somehow managing to find the finest clothes, even with the limited amount of money that Julia had given her. 

She wondered, briefly, if the Goddess had some form of hidden charisma spell that had swayed the cashiers to give them to her at half price or something. 

Something that sounded like a genuine laugh erupted from Hera. Full of the feeling of the first rain of Summer, it placed itself in Julia’s heart, and she knew that she would do much to hear that again. 

“No, I suppose so,” the woman answered, the laughter gone. There was a slight crinkle around her eyes when Julia looked at her. “Perhaps I should go about devising such a thing, now that we’ll have to learn how to live here.”

It was an olive branch if she ever saw one. And she had the feeling that she would be a fool to decline it.

“I’d love that,” she said, carefully treading the waters between them. “You might even get a thank you from Harley. And you’d most definitely be saving my ass in the process.”

“You’re talking about me? Hopefully only bad things,” Harley said as she swaggered into the room, grisly stains of blackened food coating parts of her clothes. It didn’t seem to bother her. “What’s next on the ‘getting the hell outta dodge’ plan, you’ve been working on so far?”

The question was meant for Julia, and she found herself drawing a blank. Looking to Hera seemed like the wise idea - after all, she’d been the only one to actually manage drawing her weird sigils. Not that Julia knew what they were for, or if they were even working. 

“I would need more power to get us home,” Hera said, a sigh escaping her at the same time. She crossed her legs, folding her hands carefully upon them and glancing at Hades behind her. “It would be easier with more adept spellweavers stranded here, but I am doing the best that I can with the materials provided.”

This seemed more and more like a project to be managed than anything else, and managing it was something she knew how to do.

“What would help? Any herbs or certain fabrics that could make your waned power more, well, powerful?” Not the finest sentence she’d ever come up with, but the goddess got the gist of it. 

Unfortunately, she shook her head. “I’ve not encountered any herbs or such that would be able to help me. It is not about the ritual. Rather, it is about the way that the power flows. Because you have no Gods here, there would be no one to keep the lines flowing regularly.” 

Athena walked over, snatching a piece of paper and a pen from Julia’s stash by the TV. 

“Think of it as one of your man-made rivers,” she said, drawing a dam, the water coming out beneath it as the building harvested its power. “If you shut off the area - the machinery - then the water stops flowing.” 

It was accentuated with a line through the water beneath the building, and Julia nodded. But that begged another question.

“How come there are no Gods here?” she said, her brows furrowing. “You said that you were immortal - why have any traces of you disappeared during the course of the last centuries?” 

“Other than myths and architecture,” Harley quipped, standing up and fiddling with some of the books that lined Julia’s walls. 

Julia agreed with a nod. “Other than that, yes.”

The room seemed to darken, following the facial expression of Hades that walked through the door. Hera’s lips thinned, and Athena’s face went carefully blank. Not good news, then.

“The theory would be,” Athena said, no emotion in her voice. It wasn’t even cold, just flat in a way that had Julia’s hairs standing on edge. “That we have somehow seen the fall of Olympus, and that the humans - that you - have somehow survived it.”

“Which would mean that the Gods have perished,” Hades finished, the tone hard. Shadows whirled in the edges of her vision, just out of sight, out of reach, for her to get a grip on. 

“And it is something that we will make sure never happens,” Hera said. Her hands seemed intent on murdering the fabric around her knees, and she got up, went into the guest room, and brought back her needles and a fresh piece of carpet. 

“We are here now.” Stab, stab, stab into the fabric. “We have seen what has happened.” Faster, now, than Julia’s eyes could follow, Hera staring intently at the work all the same. “It will not be permitted to occur. I will inform Zeus, and he’ll-”

The bitter laugh that Hades made was the darkest sound yet, the room dimming until even the sun outside couldn’t warm it. Shadows writhed and the many faces of the dead began appearing, dead murals moving on the walls and ceiling. 

“Zeus will do nothing, Hera,” he said, fixing her with a gaze that seemed capable of swallowing worlds whole. “You know this. You know that he much rather prefers the company of unwilling mortals, snaking his way through the streets, condemning anyone who would dare face him.”

A snarl overcame him. Something that seemed to take the shadow form of a beast over his shoulder, pain flaring in its eyes. A skeleton of what it could be, Julia imagined, but the piercing eyes burned into her nevertheless. 

“He will never regard this as anything other than a folly. And who should tell him?” There was a challenge to the tone, but Hades didn’t let anyone answer, instead continuing on as his whole body stilled, iron and crystals of something more coated in his every word. “The boy God with fire sprouting from his hands, a temper unrivalled by even the most foolish of mortals? A wizened tactician with the credibility ruined by being a member of the ‘weaker sex’? The scorned oldest brother who has been more dead than alive for the last millenia?”

A pause and a grim smile that threatened beneath the surface of his face. 

“Or should the news be delivered by the jealous wife who tears every mortal apart as he dines his way through them, but never once dared face the one who would be the source of her woes? Tell me at once who the Lord of Thunder would trust - who could break through his hard-shelled stone of a head, and I will gladly bow down to your blessed wisdom.”

There was a silence and a glare for a moment, Athena pulling back to the edges of the room, mouth twitching as if in both rage and sadness at the same time. Ares was fully entranced by the show that blathered on in the background, the voices of the room never once reaching him.

But Hera. Julia felt her heart crack at the thinning of her face, at the flinch that occured when Hades ripped into her. As if she knew; as if she agreed, but couldn’t quite find the courage to help herself. 

A survivor, nevertheless. One that might gain from being without the bastard of a husband that held Olympus in an iron fist, when he wasn’t out finding people to rape.

Julia had never much liked the thought of the God of Thunder, but there was less and less to like, with every word spoken by the Gods and Goddesses in the room. 

It didn’t matter, however, if he were to listen to them or not. They could not stay in this time, could not stay with Julia for longer than absolutely necessary. She had her own life - her own goals and ambitions.

And perhaps it had been time to throw out the Gods, anyway. Perhaps it had been the best for them to be cast aside like broken dolls by the civilizations that once worshipped them. They had been cruel masters, after all. 

She pretended not to feel the sympathy that blossomed like the stain of blood within her. Pretended not to see the extra blink or two that Hera made, and the sneer that overtook Athena as she drew into the shadows. 

There was too much bitterness, and Julia was not, and would never be, a psychiatrist. But she knew someone who was.

The silence didn’t last long with Harley there, and she quickly began cracking crude jokes at everything that Ares saw, causing him to lose his temper. Which ended in a dousing of water as Harley figured out that his hands actually sprouted fire when he became angry or upset. Something that happened a little too often for Julia’s peace of mind. 

With the others cleaning the room of water, Julia went into the kitchen to start finding dinner but found that most of what Hades and Harley had managed to make had turned out alright - it was only the meat that had crumpled. 

She had plenty of that in the fridge. It also gave her a moment of calm. To think. To muse. To mull over plans of action. 

Behind her was the sense of darkness, the sense of mulch and that metallic taste in her mouth. Julia had long since accepted that weird tastes and senses would just be part of her life until her new roommates went back to their time.

“I apologize for my rather harsh words before,” Hades said, standing at the counter beside her, wringing his hands. He sighed. “There has been a lot of pent-up aggression among us for some time, and now when there is no real play of power or scheming, it seems easier to let it out. I am sorry that it would affect you like it did.” 

Julia smiled at him, her lips twitching upwards as her whole face relaxed into the emotion. “I think that you might have needed it for years. And while I’m not happy at the prospect of having my house destroyed by a bunch of raging Gods and Goddesses, it feels like you needed to get it out.”

At the tentative smile on his face, she dared to continue. “Besides, you might end up having learned something for when you return.” A pause as she thought about the anger that had coalesced for millenia. “Or, it might end up being the thing that destroyed your reign. It might be the war of the century.” 

She laughed at the thought, her voice a little rough around the edges. As if she didn’t laugh freely. The stress might be going to her voice. She stopped at the grim look he gave her in return, his voice solemn when he spoke again. 

“I would not put it past the others. Wars have been started over far less than these disputes. Pettier things have caused just as much destruction before.” Hades moved past her, opening the cupboards to get out plates and Julia made room for him to do so. “Although … This might be somewhat of an eye-opener in the end. If they are willing to accept it.” 

With that he left her in the kitchen by herself, wandering into the living room. Julia could hear him asking the others to make ready, and then came the rumbling of the table as they prepared for the food to be brought in. 

Hermes took his place, somehow more twitchy than usual. His arms seemed to reach out for Julia, then retreat, continuing like that until she pointed towards the fridge instead.

She was not the one who would need reassurance. Not with the family drama that was going on in the living room. 

“I take it you heard all of the commotion before,” she said. She wasn’t stupid. There were signs of the messenger, even when he wasn’t there. The staff that he bore, a hiss of a snake, or even the fluttering of wings. 

She didn’t know how he did it, but there was always the sense of him. Something she suspected that the others had forgotten to listen to. In truth, they had completely forgotten to listen to each other.

“Do you think he’s right? Hades, I mean.” 

A snort. “There are many things to worry about currently. Our demise isn’t one of them. We can burn that bridge when we come to it.”

Julia turned to find a glint in his eyes, and a bouquet of flowers in a vase. 

“Thank you,” she said. 

Another pause as she scrambled for words. Hermes took a step closer to her, and Julia could feel his breath on her skin now as she looked at his ever-changing appearance. The most vibrant, and yet the most anonymous that one could ever be.

“We are grateful,” he murmured, a caress against her. She wondered, briefly, if there was perhaps more to him than the fast trickster. “For what you have given. The Gods do not forget. We will return home at some point, filled to the brim with this experience. Perhaps it will drown the old ways, make them obsolete as the ruins that you have found to remain after us. All thanks to you.

“But no matter what, remember,” Hermes’ solemn voice was overtaken by the spark that had been there the first day, and every day since. A wall coming up between him and the reality of the world. “That we will have rocked this city to the ground.” 

With those words that really didn’t make sense to Julia, he flew out the door, catching a piece of meat in his hands as he did so. She barely registered it, something heavy having been placed in her hands. 

Turning it over, she saw the discrete lines, runes running rivers up and down the entirety of it. Some seemed familiar, a gnawing sense responding from the back of her mind, whereas others left her dizzy with confusion.

At the footsteps behind her, she plopped the stone into her pocket, her hands moving almost of their own accord. At the same time, she whirled, turning towards the counter in order to hide her activity.

“Is the food- Are you alright?” Harley said, stepping closer to Julia. She turned, facing her sister as she did so, her face carefully calm. “You seem … flustered.”

Of course she’d never be able to actually fool her sister by just wiping her face. There was always that little tick - one she had known for years that she had, but could never find herself. 

Julia ran a hand over her face. “I just- Yeah, everything’s okay. Just a little tired from the constant vigilance.” Then an attempt at a small smile, her hand reaching out to squeeze her sister’s. “But thank you. For being here. For understanding.”

The slight narrowing of Harley’s eyes almost said it all, before she, too, broke into a small smile. I’m onto you, the movement seemed to say. Even if their emotions were genuine, there were still layers and layers beneath, each one covering their own secrets. 

“Well, I can’t say that I blame you,” Harley said, and Julia knew that the thing was all but forgotten, but at the same time that it would be left alone until further notice. “It must have been one hell of a couple of days for you.” 

“You have no idea,” Julia replied, quickly sketching out the bare bones of the days, about the stare down with Hera and the murder attempt of Orion on Ares. It didn’t take them long to look back at each other, tears of laughter in their eyes. 

That was one of the things that never got old.

There was a screech and the sound of Orion hissing, then a bang of something hitting the floor hard. Julia prayed that it hadn’t been her decorative bowl. But sure enough, when she got in there, Orion stood among the pieces, tail thick and body raised to the heavens, hissing and spitting at a cursing Ares. 

“Out, now,” Julia said, pointing towards her room. Orion flew out, past the God of War who was gaping with his maw open. “And you. How did this happen?”

Anger surged through him again, the muscles in his jaw flickering while he clenched his teeth. Down his arms, the embers spread, and to be honest, Julia might have found the trick to be a tad old by now.

“No,” she said, stalking closer to her, the plate of meat that she’d grabbed on her way in balanced on her left hand. The other she used to poke him in the chest, accentuating her words. “You. Don’t. Get. To. Play. That. Card. Anymore.”

Tired actually didn’t begin to cover it. Sure, they were Gods and Goddesses. Sure, they were almighty and far from home and lost in a strange world. But she wasn’t goddamn burden free, and they were heavily adding to the pile of stress that was building in her head. 

Something which she very much didn’t need. 

“Actually, you all don’t get to play that card.” Turning to meet each one of their eyes, she glossed over the smile that coated Harley’s face as she sat by the injured dog, the creature wagging from its position on the floor. “I’m sick and tired of you feeling sorry for yourselves and bickering among each other. I get that it’s weird and it’s wrong, but really, who are you helping by annoying the shit out of each other?

“Who are you helping by annoying the shit out of me?” There was no way that she would stay and act like family when the actual Greek Gods in the room could not. No use in acting civil if she was up against tricksters. “Forget it. Eat what I’ve made for you, I’m going out.” 

Julia didn’t force Harley with her. She knew that her sister was able to take care of herself - to weather the storm if need be. Instead, she went out the door, pulled her phone out of her pocket, and called the group chat that she always had open in the background. 

Right now, this was all that she needed. And even if one or two didn’t have time for her, there would always be the third one, ready to welcome her with open arms. That was how this worked - how they supported each other through thick and thin. 

Kenneth picked up on the first ring.

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #5

Hellooooo eeerybody. We have got Christmas soon and I am so excited! This story will update as usual around the 30th, so this is the last update before your Christmas funsies. 

In this part of the story, Hades brings in a little furry friend and Ares gets a little violent, which also means:

TW // minor mentions of blood and violence

When that is said, enjoy!

The First Chapter

Previous Chapter

Next chapter

Bar Brawls and Rescues

Julia didn’t know what Ares had been doing at the gym, but there was at least something that he hadn’t done right. Even if he was sporting the largest grin she had ever seen on anyone – his face stretching until the smile seemed almost ready to pop out and run around the room.

A disturbing thought, but one that Julia deemed worthy of her sleep-deprived brain. God, she hoped that the Gods and Goddesses would play nice tonight.

Scratches lined the God of War’s face, blood dribbling down his neck. Welts and bruises were forming on his hands and legs, and something that looked suspiciously like the slash of something very sharp had made a hole in his black shirt.

Oh, did she forget to mention that he had procured new clothes while being out and about? A simple black shirt and pants and a black leather jacket slung over his shoulder. She didn’t know how, but he had done it.

Julia groaned into her hands as Athena walked through the door, hair in disarray, wearing a black skirt and blazer with a white shirt underneath.

“Where did you find new clothes?” Julia didn’t even know if she wanted to know the answer, but there was a little tinge of curiosity, and that was enough. Besides, she needed to know how much of her money the Gods were using.

Even if they shouldn’t be able to guess her PIN, it was always best to be on the safe side.

“The gym turned out to be overly helpful towards new employees,” Ares said with a shrug. He plopped down into the sofa hissing at Orion as he did so. The cat hissed back, tail high and his fur all puffed up.

“And I figured I’d return the favor once I became an employee,” Athena said. She smiled at Julia, eyes twinkling even as she tried to seem completely innocent.

“You used my money,” Julia said. It was not a question, rather a statement. And by the look of Athena, she knew she was right before the words had even left her mouth. She sighed as Athena nodded.

“Alright, I guess,” Julia said. She should have thought of the himatia problem. Of course they would need new clothes. That still didn’t make the imminent dent in her wallet hurt less when she realized that they would have to go shopping.

Thankfully, today was Friday. They’d go to the mall tomorrow, and then they could figure out what to do with them all come Monday. Perhaps they would even figure out a way home before then.

It was a fool’s hope, but Julia clung to it with all of her might, nonetheless.

She stood up. They’d need food of some kind tonight, and even if she was loath to stand in the kitchen all evening in order to make something for all of them, she would have to do it whether she wanted to or not.

A long night was ahead of her.

Turning on the TV, she threw the remote to Ares. He could figure out how to find a movie, she hoped. And otherwise, they could just stare at the blue screen that lit up the room until he did.

The door went up with a bang. Orion left his guarded position at the end of the sofa, running into Julia’s bedroom at the sound.

One heck of a guard cat, she thought. She really needed to start locking her front door, then the deities could just bang on it until she opened it, because Julia wasn’t going to let herself have a heart attack every time one of these idiots couldn’t figure out how to open the door correctly.

Hades came running through the door, something fluffy carried in his arms. Blood dripped from the creature and down onto the wooden floors.

“Not on the tapestries,” Hera said, not bothering to look at Hades. “You’ll ruin the sigils.”

Sweat ran down the side of Hades’ temple, dirt caked in his matted hair that had been long and silky earlier. Parts of his clothes were ripped, loose pieces that hid among the folds of the cloth falling to the ground as he moved.

Julia got up and found the blanket she’d used for Orion. The cat glared at her from under her bed, keeping a watchful eye on the commotion from the living room.

“Here, put it down on this,” Julia said, placing the blanket on one of the warmest places in the house. Orion usually lurked around this spot when Julia became too much of a nuisance for him.

Hades carefully – ever so carefully – placed the creature upon the blanket, and Julia could get a good look at it. Its fur was torn, and bones were showing through the skin. Harley was the only one who could have put the God up to this.

Damn her.

The dog was a mutt – some form of cross between a Labrador and border collie, if Julia was to guess, its thin body mostly black with a white line that went from the middle of its forehead and ended in a white patch on its chest. Its front paws were also white, resembling socks. But half of its ear was gone, and there were bloody patches mixing with the black fur.

“Poor guy,” Julia said, sitting down. “Has Harley given you the medicine he needs?”

“She,” Hades corrected, nodding all the while. He turned, showing a backpack filled to the brim with the essentials. “Harley will come over tomorrow to get another look at her, she said.”

Julia cursed her sister. And her own stupidity. Of course, Harley would have inquired about Hades, and Hades would of fucking course have replied with the truth. There was no reason not to, when she’d told him that she was family.

She could just imagine it, even as she worked. Checking the wounds of the poor dog, making sure that it was out cold. Harley had given it some form of tranquilizer for the time being, and the old girl would wake up later, in a strange house and woozy.

“What did she tell you to do, exactly?” Julia asked. She needed to know whether this dog was going to be her responsibility or whether it was just another excuse for her sister to stick her nose in Julia’s business.

Hades handed her a set of instructions and Julia cursed. The God of the dead kneeled beside the dog, running a careful hand down the side of the dog. He made sure to avoid the places with scratches and welts, using his other hand to pull out a few treats and placing them by her snout.

He had practically adopted the poor thing by now, and Julia had the sinking feeling that she’d missed something. Some poor judgement of Hades’ person that was now biting her in the ass.

Cerberus.

Of course. The three-headed dog of the underworld. She would need to make a new rule regarding adopting companions, because if Hades came back with another animal each time he worked, they might get in trouble very soon.

Mostly because Orion was a grump, and Julia wouldn’t be able to afford an enclave of animals when the time came for the Gods and Goddesses to return home to their time. 

No, acquiring animals would have to be banned. As a rule. It was bad enough that Julia had no idea where the freaking owl that Athena had brought had ended up. For all she knew, it might be tearing her pillows apart when she wasn’t looking. 

Julia pressed the tips of her fingers to the back of her nose, inhaling, then exhaling slowly. She stood up, backing away from the dog. If they were going to do this, she’d need backup.

“How long exactly are you planning on staying?” she asked the room. Surely some of them would be able to come up with an estimate. “How long until you get the ability to weave spells back?”

There was a beat of silence. One that was far too long for Julia’s sense. She sighed, using a hand to tie up her hair as she did so. She always carried the hair ties around her wrists - for moments like this.

Well not exactly like this, because it wasn’t every day that an animal-crazed God of the dead brought in a rescue while three other deities watched, but more for hectic days. Days that just needed the extra effort put into them. A little more oomph.

Another part of her manager mode, she guessed. Perhaps even a level-up as Olivia so often called them. Even if it was mostly in regards to Yrene’s aggressive niceness. 

Athena cleared her throat to get rid of said silence, and Julia let her eyes drift over to her. Hades had lowered himself completely into the side of the dog, ignoring any attempts of communication, and Ares stared pointedly at the screen in front of him. 

It didn’t take a genius to figure that one out. Even if her heart might have sunk at the sound of Hera’s sneering behind her, the room laced with the fury of the skies as she did. 

“There have been complications,” the Queen of the Gods said and Julia’s heart sank to the bottom of her chest. They’d be stuck here, then. 

It took her a moment, but when it hit, Julia turned around, facing the woman behind her. “That’s why you’ve been weaving all day.”

Really, she should have seen it for what it was. There was something a little bit too magical about the masterpieces that littered her floor and walls now. Something a little bit too odd for them to be ordinary.

Hera nodded, a smirk forming on her face as she did. 

“Clever mortal,” she said. The others seemed to become more interested in the tapestries, touching and marvelling at them in ways they had not bothered before. Julia’s eyes never left Hera, afraid of what turning her back on the Goddess who had somehow retained some of her power would entail. “You spot things you should not be able to.”

A shrug was the only possible answer to that comment. Even if the smile that wafted across Julia’s face might have had an ounce of pride in it.

Okay, fine. More than an ounce.

“But you still have no way of returning home,” Julia said, the comment feeling like a backhand to her own face. Why let others squeeze the life out of the hope that was blossoming in her chest, when she could do it herself?

The nod that Hera gave was quickly overtaken by the cool voice of Athena as it rang out across the room. “No. This is a sneaky form of magic. One that I had not even anticipated would work.”

A laugh at that, but this one harsh and coming from the mouth of the war God behind Julia. She whirled, backing a few steps until she stood beside Hades who still knelt by the tattered dog. 

She felt better with her back against the wall - felt better when she had the ability to see them all as they moved. 

“Sneaky would be the choice of Hera,” he said, a sneer on his face. Julia frowned at his look. There were clearly some family issues here that they would have to work out at some point. Perhaps with swords and the spilling of blood, but Julia wasn’t really keen on having that done in the middle of her apartment. “The Goddess of the Heavens has never been known for her straightforwardness.”

“Sometimes, brute strength will not get the job done,” Hera answered smoothly, and a snort came from Athena. 

“It’s not like you to shy away from brutality,” she said, her words careful. As if she weighed them on her tongue before speaking, deeming the right qualities of each one. “When the requirements were deemed necessary, you did what it took to get the deed done.”

“Hold your tongue, child, lest you lose it,” Hera said, eyes sparking with a storm that Julia would have thought was limited to the God of Thunder. 

Fire damage might not end up coming solely from Firehands, if she were to judge that look correctly. Another thing that was unacceptable in the apartment. But just as she opened her mouth to speak, darkness crept into her vision.

“Proves them right,” Hades said, never lifting his head from the side of the dog. That metallic taste had returned to Julia’s mouth, coating her taste buds in blood. “You deal in fury and blood, Hera. In that way, you and Ares are much alike.”

Ouch. Julia almost felt that blow herself, watching as both Ares and Hera shifted in their fury - the former in wild movements and with sparks coming from his hands, the latter with an imperceptible lightening of the skin and a twitch of hands trying to ball themselves into fists.

It might be time to pry them apart. She wasn’t really one for violence, and this kind of bar brawl might actually turn out devastating. For both her and the apartment. 

“Hey, hey, hey,” she said, stepping into the room and waving her arms. Just for good measure. Suddenly she had four pairs of eyes on her, each one pissed in their own right.

Well, except for Athena, who seemed more than a little amused, if the shine in her eyes and her relaxed position against the wall was any indication. 

“You aren’t going to get back quicker by fighting,” Julia said, trying for logic. They must have some kind of sense, goddammit. “But if we just relax and try to combine our strengths instead of actively pointing out each other’s flaws, you might get back sooner.”

A snarl and a fuming and spitting Ares twisted around her. Julia grabbed his hand - to do what, she didn’t know - but immediately stumbled back with a yelp, cradling her hand. When she held it out to get a better look at it, she saw the pinkish patch of skin that had appeared on her palm. 

It stung.

Ares didn’t even stop, instead coming to a halt by Hades’ side, towering above him with his bulk. It made the God of the Dead seem fragile, bent over and sitting down as he was - a weariness over him that Julia hadn’t noticed before. 

Reaching out and grabbing the older God’s collar, Ares pulled his other hand back, both of them actively glowing now as embers jumped off them. There was no movement from any of the others. Hades didn’t even look at him. 

“You are fucking brats, you know that?” Julia said, checking the side of Ares’ shoulder with her own. He stumbled sideways, loosening his grip on Hades’ collar and moving backwards, out of reach. 

Just as Hades let himself move with Ares’ movement, apparently thinking that the God of War would attack. There was a smoothness to his hand, as it came rushing up at her from his side, gaining momentum with each second.

Julia knew that she wouldn’t be able to move - saw in the black eyes that widened at the sight of her, that Hades wouldn’t be able to stop, either.

And so she twisted as best as she could, taking advantage of the height difference and letting her stomach take the blow instead of some other part of her. A part that might not be so easily fixed if it broke.

She tensed, muscles screaming at the pain that went through her. Even bracing for the impact as she had, Julia stumbled back, falling over her legs and landing on the floor. Jolts ran up her hands, her forearms, into her shoulders as they took the fall.

In the end, she might have had steam coming out of her ears, as she sat on the floor. With as much calm as she could muster - she was having a really hard time not snarling at them right now - she pointed towards the kitchen.

“If you idiots have finished fooling around I would very much like for you to get started on dinner. There are instructions in the kitchen.” When no one moved, and a smile that didn’t quite reach Hera’s eyes was forming on the Goddess’ face, Julia let her anger show. “Now, or you might suddenly find yourselves in the need of a new home for the duration of your stay here in the contemporary world.”

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take Me To Olympus #4

Hello everyone! A day late, but it’s here! 

I hope you’re all doing great and excited to see some more standoffs between Julia and Hera, because there will be more conflicts. 

Enjoy!

The First Chapter

Previous chapter

Next chapter

Hera the interior designer

Julia didn’t know what she’d expected when she walked through the doors to her apartment. It was certainly not Orion laying on Hades’ lap in the middle of the couch. Nor was it the tapestries that now littered the floor, the paint that had mysteriously appeared on the walls.

They formed signs and symbols, and the tapestries had silver and gold symbols interwoven in them. Hera sat on Julia’s favorite chair, sewing away on the piece of carpet in her hands.

It was a story, of sorts, Julia realized. The ones on the walls had depictions of the Gods and Goddesses – their failures and their glories. And the ones on the floor were mortals – heroes and villains alike. Those that failed to please the Gods and those that made sure to become legends.

She was loath to admit it, but it was something that belonged in a museum rather than here, in her apartment.

How long had she been gone for Hera to have managed all of this? Watching the hand flitter back and forth, no more than a shadow over the cloth in her lap, Julia knew the answer.

“It’s breathtaking,” she whispered. Because it wasn’t beautiful. Violence and pain and despair was depicted – right there with the glory and the vanity that she knew from the myths. It was a work of art.

“Thank you,” Hera said, eyes soft as she regarded Julia. Then they turned hard again, the figurative walls slamming into Julia, almost sending her stumbling back. Such a change – and so fast. “You’re abode needed some style, I felt.”

“I don’t agree, but I can’t say I’m not pleased at all.” It was … different. Probably something she would tear down the moment the deities left, but nevertheless something she would never throw away. Her grandparents' old carpets and blankets given new life.

Julia smiled to herself, her lips quirking up to show her teeth. This would be good.

“Do you like doing this?” She asked, the innocence dripping off each word. The ‘get what I want’-Julia. That was what friends called her when she did this. It might have been true, even if this, too, was one of the things she would never admit to.

“What,” Hera answered. Truth be told, it was more of a snap than a question, but Julia took it as a prompt anyways. She felt the dark eyes of the God of the Dead on her back but paid him no heed.

“Just …” A pause, as if she didn’t know how to phrase the next part. “Just making stuff. Creating like this.”

A snort.

“It’s what I’ve been expected to do,” Hera said, voice somber. Even as she looked fondly at her work, a hand almost caressing the lines of silver and gold before she continued her rapid needlework. “It’s what I’m trained to be.”

Those words settled in Julia’s gut. They twisted her into a smile that had coated her lips too often when she was forced to agree with someone. Sometimes, that was easier.

“Listen,” Julia said, sitting down in front of Hera. She was smaller than the other lady now, and by the raised eyebrow, Julia could see that Hera knew the implications. “You don’t have to do this. There’s no one here who forces you to – if Ares says anything, he’s on the first ticket out the door, a boot print of mine in his ass.”

Somehow, she knew that Hades wouldn’t be the issue in this conversation.

There was no reaction from Hera, her face set in stone. Her hands, however, had increased their speed. They sewed away furiously, as if some form of phantom wind was forcing them. Faster and faster, as Julia continued.

“But you can also own up to it. You like doing it, that’s clear to see.” Julia took a deep breath, standing up again. She reminded herself that they were equals for now, even if she felt dwarfed by the regality in the gaze that Hera sent her. “You can turn it into your livelihood. Become an interior designer – or even start your own shop. You’re clearly a master at your craft, and I have the feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Was that the ghost of a smile? It disappeared before it really began, leaving Julia to stand in the wake of her own words. There was no reason for Hera to see her skills as a ‘wife’s job’. She hoped that the woman would cast off her mantle – that thing that forced her to keep herself tough and proud – and maybe even embrace the new world she had ended up in.

They would soon be home, but knowing could change everything.

In the old stories, the Gods never changed. In the old stories, they could not see past their own stubborn egos. Perhaps this was a chance to make amends to that.

“And you,” Julia pointed at Hades, and Orion meowed as a reply. He sat up, his yellow eyes following Julia’s hand as he yawned and stretched. Then he hopped past the back of the sofa, caressing her legs as he walked past her, into the kitchen.

“You can’t keep laying her all day,” she said. Hades shook his head, darkness forming and retreating around him even if his face was as if set in stone. But there was the distinct feeling of a laugh in the back of Julia’s head.

“So?” She prompted. He would know better himself what he could do. And Julia honestly could say that she had no idea what the God of the Dead could do. As far as she remembered he didn’t even interact with humans.

Not until they were dead, anyway.

“I do not much specialize in the company of people,” he said, and Julia felt the faces of the dead form around the edges of her vision, their fingers dragging down her back, their breath clammy around her neck. “But I do know how to manage large quantities of them.”

No people skills but a natural born organizer. This guy would be better off by the-

Wait.

That couldn’t be. But on the other hand, Athena wanting to become a teacher was kind of a stretch to take in. It was such a simple job for a woman of her strengths. The same for Hera and her sewing and embroidering.

“You were the one who kept Hell running, right?” Julia said, noting the shadow of a smile forming on the God’s face, his eyes softening to calm darkness with it. She knew it was because she used another religion’s term for the underworld, but really she couldn’t be bothered. “Organization, papers, the whole deal?”

A nod in answer. Then nothing. A man of few words.

“How about becoming an accountant? I’m sure you’ll learn quickly,” she said, picking up a piece of paper and scribbling down her message. On another piece, she wrote the instructions to find the place. “I’ve got a friend who might be willing to teach you. She just started the firm, but she’s a bit of a mess. Find Harley at this address.”

Julia handed Hades the pieces of paper, noting the coldness that his hands exuded when her fingers brushed past. As if they were a black hole, stealing warmth, not light.

The man shuffled to the door, somehow both gracefully and awfully misplaced at the same time. She hoped he would be more in his element among the papers and Harley.

Harley Quinn, they called her, minus the homicidal and insane qualities, of course. But the woman was a bit of a mess – something that worked fine when she was around the animals, but it wasn’t really productive when she needed to finish the paperwork due. Or her bills, for that matter.

Julia loved her little sister to bits. Hopefully, Hades would, too.

What she didn’t realize before the door shut was that Hades leaving, left her alone with an annoyed Goddess. And that said Goddess had previously proved fit for murderous rampages against mortals who’d wronged her.

Yeah, Julia would have to find a way to survive the rest of the day. And fast, judging by the look that Hera sent her way. If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought that the Queen of the Gods had been the one to wield the bolt of lightning, because lightning was most definitely shooting from those eyes that seemed to bore into Julia’s soul.

She might have had a hard time ignoring the urge to flee the building in that very moment.

“Look, I’m sorry that you’re stuck here, but-“

Hera held up a hand to stop her. Then the deity carefully wrapped up the last part of the blanket, placing the cloth on the floor beside her chair.

“It is bad enough, as you say, that we have to lower ourselves to work with a mortal in order to survive,” Hera said, every bit a queen as she rose from the chair. She seemed taller, somehow. As if the fact that she was unseen by the other Gods had turned her into something wild – something unburdened, for the moment.

“It is bad enough that we have to stoop to menial labor in order to provide sustenance.” A bitter laugh at that – one that wrung the air around them, wreathing itself in the pain that laced Hera’s voice. “That we have to scrape by like the common folk. Like the mortals that toil at the earth beneath them, never better than the other animals.

“But for you to take the ancient arts that were taught to me from the moment of my birth, and twist them into something that mortals are able to fathom – let alone to appreciate – that is an insult that cannot be ignored.”

Hera stepped closer, closing in on Julia like a predator and its prey, her voice turning deceptively soft. The anger coursing beneath it, a shark smelling for blood in the water.

“You might have fooled the others to accept that their godly abilities compare to that of mortals,” she whispered. Julia couldn’t take her eyes off her – off the war that reigned in her eyes, and the storms that fluttered in her voice. “But you are wrong. There is nothing like the work of a God. We are immortal – we are eternal.

“We have reigned with powers unimaginable long before the age of mortals, and we will linger on long after. Unbeatable, unbroken.”

Hera turned on her heel, letting her last comment linger in the air as she walked away, clearly done with their conversation. Julia narrowed her eyes. It would be dangerous to retort, but there was something satisfying in the thought of ripping apart the self-made pedestal that Hera had placed the Gods upon. Untouched by the mortals she deemed inferior.

“In ancient times, you might have had your powers – you might have been the most powerful of beings, reigning the world from atop your gilded towers on Mount Olympus.” Hera didn’t stop, continuing into the guest room that she had used for the night. But Julia knew that she was listening – could see it in the way the tips of her fingers twitched while her neck stiffened.

She hid it well, but Julia recognized attention when she saw it. So she continued.

“And if you are such eternal beings – if you cannot be beaten by even the passing of time – then tell me this,” she said. Her voice was low. Power did not always come from the one who showcased it, Hera had certainly proved that once and for all. There was something far more deadly to portray instead.

Control.

“How come you have turned mortal in this day and age? How come you have all but disappeared from the minds of mortals, faded into old myth?”

And then the crown jewel. The thing that Hera would have thought of – that Athena would have already reasoned. The one that would have sent Hades into accepting that building their way back, brick by brick, would be the only way to return to their Godhood.

“How come you aren’t in this world anymore?” Julia said, her voice velvet. But underneath it lay the void. Something didn’t add up.

Hera stiffened in the doorway into the guestroom, the words hanging in the air between the two.

They had come from the past, blasted into the future. Gone from their world with rage and power running glistening through their veins to the modern world – the contemporary world – where they had turned into faded, dusty myths. Tales for children and students, scholars and the occult.

A mockery of what once was.

People had stopped believing in them. Had found it better to forget the malevolent Gods who only sought to benefit themselves. And deities without worship were no more Gods than mortals were.

It made sense, in that way. They would have begun noticing a retreat in their power – perhaps a few graying hairs. And then they might have simply turned to dust as the years passed, the world leaving them behind one step at a time.

Because while humans had no particular powers of their own, the power of belief – of hope – had been known to carry mortals into legend. Perhaps the opposite could be said as well.

“You know nothing of what you speak,” Hera snarled from where she stood. She didn’t bother to turn to face Julia. Instead she walked into the room, closing the door behind her without the inkling of force that Julia otherwise felt running through the air.

A grim smile coated her lips as she sat down on the couch, Orion instantly hopping onto the other end of it. The cat came waltzing down to her, sniffing her hand before he curled up in her lap.

To become unloved enough to disappear. Forgotten by the ones who were vital to your survival. There was some kind of grim justice in that. The Gods and Goddesses who had caused so much pain had at some point become superfluous, forgotten by the ones who followed them.

A whisper of a thought came to her mind.

“No, don’t do it,” Julia said to herself as she eyed her computer. It was where Athena had left it, ready to be used. She dug her hands into Orion’s soft fur, letting his purrs sink into her.

It was a bad idea. Something that might actually disrupt the balance of the world.

Julia was notorious for her bad ideas.

She placed the cat by her side, stood up and grabbed the computer before she sat down. With a sigh, she opened it, easily finding the sites she would need.

“We are going to do something dumb and destructive, Orion,” Julia said. The cat looked at her with his yellow eyes, somehow both a question and an affirmation at the same time. “But we might just change the course of things, and if we’re very lucky, we won’t screw anything up along the way.

[vaultofqueenorion]

Take me to Olympus #2

Hello my stars! Get ready for some more fun times with the Greek Gods and Goddesses to take your mind off Election Day / that awful race that we’re all secretly watching although we really should unplug for the sake of wellbeing of mind.

Ah well, if you want to be temporarily distracted, I think that this might help! Enjoy. 

The First Chapter/Previous Chapter

Next chapter

_________________________________

The Marvels of Modern Technology

Hades, of all of them, was the first to speak afterwards. Julia had the mental feeling of cold and dark and a taste of minerals on her tongue. For the sound of a voice, it was odd.

“What would you have us do without our powers?” he said, and darkness seemed to drip down the walls.

“I don’t know, woo me with your godly intelligence or something,” Julia answered. She made a point of not looking at the darkness or the echoes of faces that appeared with each word, instead keeping eye contact with the one who would be the God of the Dead.

“You already know whether or not we are members of the Pantheon,” he answered. It rolled off his tongue, twisting in the air with the shadows on her pristine white walls, landing somewhere inside her chest.

To be fair, Firehands and entering with an actual owl had her teetering on the edge of belief, but actual shadows forming at the sound of a voice? Yeah, Julia was convinced.

But pretending otherwise made it less terrifying.

She sat down on the couch, head buried in her hands as she groaned. She didn’t have time to freak out – couldn’t afford it or else she might not be able to continue living.

“Yes. You kind of convinced me with the whole ‘appearing inside my apartment without any reason for why’ act,” she mumbled through her hands, refusing to look around. “Look, what did you expect? Four Deities just randomly appear in my living room, and I am trying very hard not to freak out and just pass out right now.”

Her heart was hammering away in her chest, threatening to rip itself loose with each beat. And her breathing might be hastening with each thought, wheezing through her throat with a sound that reminded her a little bit of wind chimes.

She spiraled – faster and faster and faster, as she thought about the implications. Julia had just threatened several actual Gods and Goddesses. And she had set up rules. For them. If these were the prominent deities today, she’d definitely end up being punished severely in the Underworld. Perhaps even sooner.

Gosh this day really was the worst.

A hand steadied her thoughts as it landed on her shoulder. Earthy tones seeped into her mind, a calmness grounding her. When she looked up from her hands, green eyes looked back.

“We understand,” Athena said, the owl back on her shoulder. She didn’t remove her hand, and it kept sending Julia that feeling of grounding. “We will abide by your rules while we are living under your roof.”

It felt like the weight of the world was lifted from Julia’s shoulders. At the same time, there was also a rush of exhilaration as she looked around, earning nods from the other three Deities.

This would be just another managing job, she told herself. Her own little department of Gods and Goddesses to whip into shape under her name.

“Alright,” Julia said, standing up, because otherwise she might as well just pass out. Orion watched Ares with wary eyes from where he was sitting on her coffee table, as if to tell him that he needed to clean up his mess.

Julia was inclined to agree.

She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, beckoning her new roommates to come closer as she wrote:

House Rules:

1.   When something is accidentally broken or put into disarray, it will be mended, a replica will be purchased and it will be returned to its former state.

Julia sent a look towards Ares as she wrote, and he grumbled before bending down and returning the things to the coffee table. She continued her list as he did so.

2.   Whenever the Deities are not working on returning home, they will help Julia with whatever they can – including cleaning and doing other chores around the house.

“What’s a ‘Julia’?” Hera asked. Julia looked up to see Athena roll her eyes before she pointed at Julia. Hera formed a mouth in the shape of an ‘o’ in return, her nose wrinkling in distaste.

3.   If there is nothing left to do, Julia will find something appropriate to occupy the Deities.

“That simply will not do,” Hera said, hands whipping into the air. “We cannot follow the whims of a mortal.”

Julia sighed. Loudly. Then she turned towards the Goddess Queen, an eyebrow arched.

“It will do,” she said, arms coming to cross over her chest. “If you want to stay here, you have to help out. I don’t care if you’re used to having ambrosia served by a flock of nymphs, but down here on Earth, you have to actually earn a living – one way or the other.”

A smile played at her lips as she watched the outrage grow on the other woman’s face.

“Consider it a lesson,” Julia said. She had a feeling that seeing the other woman’s lips thin and eyes glimmer with barely concealed rage could very quickly become a new hobby of hers. A very dangerous one, but a fun one, nonetheless.

“I know you’re so fond of giving them out to mortals, so perhaps it’s time that you learned something for yourself.”

Turning away from the simmering Goddess, Julia addressed the other three. Her head cocked slightly as she thought, eyes darting from one to the other.

“You must have something that you’re good at – something that you like to do,” she said. Ares snorted, a spark flying from his hands as he placed the last item – a figurine of something that Julia had never figured out what was. The head, which now had a line through it and cracks coating its skin like a spider web, resembled that of a snake, but parts of the body were feline, parts reptilian.

“We are Gods,” Ares said, a sneer curling on his lips. “We do not perform mundane, mortal tasks.”

“No, but you do act like drunken humans-“ Julia made sure to put emphasis on the word – a muscle in her eye twitched every time they used the other word with such disdain. “-in all of the old myths. Myths which I have the feeling are quite correct.”

The laugh that escaped Athena was filled with the glee of the battlefield, and Julia felt that it was a laugh of a commander watching her plan unfolding before her.

“She does have a point, you know,” Athena said when she recovered, a hand running down the owl’s feathers. “And as much as I hate to admit it, something is blocking out spellcraft and our divinity. We are, for the time being, mortals ourselves.”

She paused for a moment as if tasting the word. Then she winked at Julia as she uttered: “Well, humans, I suppose.”

It made Julia smile. Even if it was just a strategic ploy – the Goddess of strategic warfare and knowledge was far too smart to alienate the person they needed help from – Julia was grateful. It was always nice to have an ally, even if that ally was temporary.

“So,” Julia said, clapping her hands once. She let the paper stay on the coffee table for all to see as she went over to the TV, hooked up her laptop, and went online searching for jobs. “I can’t exactly feed all of you. I might be able to get my boss to employ one or even two of you, but the others will need to get searching for jobs.”

A sideways glance at Athena had Julia smiling again. There was something about her – the frizzy hair and look of absolute wilderness incarnate, perhaps – that made Julia unable to look away.

“Athena, what could you imagine yourself working with?” She asked the Goddess. She was the most helpful of them all, and that would make her the wisest choice at the moment. “From the myths, I’d say that you’re tactical and clever, but that’s about what I know.”

An amused smile greeted her as the Goddess took the compliments. She walked over to the TV, glancing at the job boards that were present.

“I am the Goddess of Cities – protector of Athens,” Athena said as she glanced at the screen. “How do you get this machinery to display moving boards?”

It seemed like Athena wanted to reach out and touch the screen. Her curiosity was uplifting, even if Julia couldn’t tell her how it worked.

“Um, I’m not quite sure. It has something to do with different colored lamps that are very small and can change colors rapidly, thus forming images.” Julia frowned, biting her lip as she thought. “At least I think so.”

Honestly, it was one of those everyday things that she had never given a single thought, and the important thing for her had always just been that it worked. Period. No more thought and no more technical details.

She turned her computer around and pointed to the cable that went from it and into the back of the TV.

“This cable connects my PC to the screen up there, making it possible for you to see what I’m doing down here,” she said, frustrated at her lack of knowledge. What if her nephews would ask that question? She needed to Google it as soon as possible.

At the look of confusion on Athena’s face and at the curiosity that still shone in her eyes, Julia used one hand to wave her over.

“C’mere. Try it,” she said. Experimenting with something might help the woman understand it. Perhaps not the technicalities behind it, but at least it could satisfy some of her inquisitiveness.

Athena sat down by her side, on the edge of the sofa. There was an almost imperceptible tension in her as she eyes the machine. As if it was sentient and would gnaw her face off at any moment.

Julia promptly plopped the computer into the Goddess’ lap, watching as she stiffened further.

“Relax,” she said, using one hand to move the mouse around. “This area controls the mouse – this one on the screen right there. Can you see that it’s moving in correspondence to my movements here? And then we have the keyboard.”

Julia opened a word document and started typing up her name. The others had gathered around them, too. She felt them more than she heard them. There was a sort of presence to them – as if her instincts knew that she was around people who were just more.

“The keyboard puts in the characters, and then it’s possible to type up documents without ever running out of ink. Try it,” Julia repeated, watching as Athena’s eyes went to the screen, fingers hovering over the keys.

At least she would be entertained for a while. And perhaps, she might even develop a taste for it – if it was that easy to find jobs for the deities, then Julia would have no troubles with keeping them occupied.

Now onto the next challenge.

Ares, even with the initial curiosity, stood aside, facing Orion rather than the screen the other three had clumped around. There was murder in his eyes – something which Orion mirrored as he hissed, fur thick around him.

“Hey, no,” Julia said to the cat, shooing him off the coffee table he’d used as a pedestal. Orion yowled at her as he hopped down, tail raised and thick in annoyance. Julia shook her head.

“What?” Ares said, narrowing his eyes at him, his arms moving to cross in front of his chest. It made Julia think of a sullen teenager more than anything else.

“What would you like?” She asked him. He simply glared at her, and she sighed. “Look, I know that you don’t want to be here. I don’t particularly want any of you here either, so let’s just try to get along. It’s going to be awfully boring if you don’t get a hobby or something.”

When he continued to be silent, Julia threw her hands up, a sigh escaping her. She looked to the ceiling, at the little white swirls that occurred whenever the paint hadn’t dried evenly, and took a deep breath.

She needed to get them all to cooperate. Somehow, she knew that this wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d liked.

“How about some form of martial art? Or boxing or something?” Julia said. The God of war must like something like that. It would make the most sense to everyone.

The grunt she received in return didn’t really get her hopes up. She’d take that as a maybe, though. Especially because Ares turned on his heel and walked over to the other three, glancing over their shoulders.

That was why Orion didn’t like him, she supposed. They were too much alike.

Julia went into the kitchen to finish her hot chocolate. She might be able to get some Netflix time in today, after all.