(Eight Years Ago)
Hera looked down on the mortal world and sighed. Sometimes she wished she could escape Olympus and live among the mortals for a few years, until Zeus grew to miss her enough that he'd come to find her and beg her to return. Alas, it did not seem likely he would come even if she could leave. The goddess felt a small tug at the hem of her robes and when she looked down was greeted by a warm gaze from eyes identical to her own.
"Hello Aricia, my love." She said softly and lifted the child in to her arms.
"Hello Mother." Aricia, daughter of Hera and Hera alone greeted her mother lovingly; holding on to her waist tight for both mother and child knew this may be the final embrace they shared. This child, like Hephaestus had been the product of pathogeneses, born without the blood of the unfaithful Zeus running in her veins. Unlike her elder brother though, Aricia was flawless, for Aphrodite had been in a pleasant mood the day of her conception and had blessed Queen Hera's baby to be as lovely as her own daughters. Zeus however, had cursed the infant to be only half a god since, rather than granting her immortality like Hephaestus possessed. And with his spite, Zeus banished the child that was his wife's yet not his own from Olympus on the eve of her fifth birthday.
"I don't want you to go." Hera whispered, stroking her child's dark brown hair, falling like the finest silk in between her slender white fingers. "I would keep you here on Olympus with me for all eternity if it was in my power."
"I understand Mother."
"Take this with you, so Chiron, the trainer of heroes will know who claims you when you eventually make your way to Half-Blood Hill."
Hera put an amulet around her daughter's neck. On it held a silver peacock feather about an inch long.
"Majesty, it is time."
Hera turned to see Hermes, messenger of the gods waiting patiently to take Aricia away. The goddess held tightly for a moment more before placing a kiss on the child's head. "Be strong Aricia, never let them break you." She knelt down and let the child slip from her arms.
"I love you Mother." Aricia was trying her best not to cry. She hated crying in front of others, because her mother did as well. Aricia wanted to be as strong as the goddess who bore her.
"I love you too." Hera admitted. She had not said that in millenniums. Not to her other children, and especially not to her faithless husband. "Hermes, make sure you bring her someplace safe."
"Of course." Hermes took the little one's hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry child, the mortal world is not so bad."
Hera watched them disappear, waiting until her child could no longer see her before she allowed herself to cry. "Be safe." She whispered aloud, but no one was there anymore to listen.