My name is Brooke Levendakis, and I am the human descendent of the Greek nymph Calypso. As many legends would tell you, Calypso died not long after Odysseus was set free from her island. Calypso did eventually die, and the cause of her death can be laid at the feet of Odysseus if you're so inclined, but Calypso died hundreds of years after his departure, not weeks. I will now tell you what really happened, and how I and someone else broke the curse placed on Calypso's human descendents as well as Hermes'.
First I'll tell you about what caused the curse to be placed. When Hermes arrived bearing the message from Zeus that said Calypso had to set Odysseus free, Calypso was stricken with grief and blamed Hermes for her misery. She did allow Odysseus to leave and gave him a raft and provisions, but drowned Hermes' human love as revenge for his telling her to release Odysseus from her spell. A month after Odysseus' departure, Hermes found his human love had been killed and enacted his own revenge on Calypso. This cycle of "revenge" lasted until about 120 B.C., when Hermes removed Calypso's immortality. Because she was no longer immortal, all of Calypso's years caught up with her--much like when Dorian Gray saw his portrait--and she turned to ash. Atlas (Calypso's father) found out about his daughter's demise and appealed to Zeus, who then placed a curse on both Hermes' and Calypso's human descendents and removed Hermes' immortality, turning him to a shade as well.
This is where I come in. The curse Zeus placed on Hermes and Calypso said that once every 50-170 years, a pair of human descendents of both Hermes and Calypso would be born that displayed some combination of qualities that marked them as "Chosen".These "Chosen" descendents would first have to find each other, then learn to overcome their ingrained hatred and live together in harmony, which would bring Hermes and Calypso back to life with their immortality intact. If the two Chosen failed to find each other (more and more likely with the world's population continuously spreading out), there would be another pair of Chosen within fifty years. If, however, the Chosen found each other but failed to live harmoniously, there wouldn't be another pair for another hundred and seventy years. I am one such descendent who came after a pair that couldn't find each other. The Levendakis' (my family) are descendents of Galenos, a human lover of Calypso's who had a child by her that was wholly mortal. We've passed down the tale of Zeus' curse on Hermes and Calypso through the generations, and we knew I was one of the Chosen because the longest I've held my breath under water is for 3 hours, 28 minutes and 52 seconds. That was timed when I was seven, and I was 19 when this story begins.
The official age to start looking for another Chosen is 20 years old (no one's really sure why you start looking at 20 years of age, we assume it was a tradition started by one of the first Chosen descendents of Calypso). The 14th day before any Levendakis' birthday starts their testing--lasting seven days--to make sure that they really are a Chosen. Otherwise, they'd be sent on a wild goose chase for a Chosen descendent of Hermes' that wasn't born yet. Since Calypso was a water nymph (albeit an extremely powerful one), our testing to weed out Chosens involves a lot of water endurance--the longest amount of time you can hold your breath underwater, your fastest swimming speed, your endurance in water, the coldest and highest water temperatures you can withstand, etcetera. The testing also covers talents associated to actual water nymphs, such as creating ice from thin air and shaping water using nothing, including your hands. All of these different parts that comprise the testing are spread out over seven days, so that the potential Chosen can have time to rest in between each phase.
Since I was born July 13th, 1988, my testing began June 29th, 2008. Most of the testing is physical and in water, so I was exceedingly happy that mine took place during summertime, not winter. Everyone in my family was almost certain that I was the next Chosen, since at seven years old I didn't need oxygen for almost three and a half hours.
I passed the testing, and found out that at almost 20 years of age I could hold my breath underwater for a day and a half and my swimming speed had increased to 20.13 miles per hour. I also had quite a few of the water nymph abilities, something that hadn't been seen since the chosen in 754 A.D., which my family took as an indication that I would be the one to finally break our curse.
Honestly, I was terrified to leave. I knew I was probably going to need to travel all around the world to find the descendent of Hermes, and go through a lot once/if I found the other Chosen. The night previous to my 20th birthday, as I was going to sleep, one of Calypso's sisters appeared in my room and held out her hand. I don't know how I could tell she was also a water nymph, but I could, so I took her hand and we suddenly went from my room to a beautifully furnished cave overlooking the ocean. With the tapestries depicting ancient battles covering the walls, the furniture that looked like something out of a museum on Greek mythology, and the other nymphs gathered around the room, I knew we had to be on the island of Ogygia, Calypso and her sisters' home. The nymph who brought me there had pale blue hair that hung to her knees, bright green eyes, and only a simple dress for cover. "You are the Chosen, yes?" she asked me. I told her I was the Chosen, and her smile was as white as the pearls in her and her giggling sisters' hair.
"You look so very much like Calypso," she smiled, looking me over, "You have her pale green eyes, dark hair, fair skin... Oh, how we miss her! You will try to find the other Chosen and live harmoniously, won't you? We miss Calypso greatly."
"I'll try. But why am I here? I never heard of you visiting any of the other Chosen in my family, or bringing them to Ogygia," I questioned, confused.
"I have visited one other Chosen who, like yourself, showed the talents of a nymph. She did not mention my appearance to any of her family, for she was a secretive, jealous person, but visit her I did. I come to wish you luck, and tell you that you have the opportunity of becoming immortal if you succeed in returning Calypso to my sisters and I."
At this I was stunned. Me? An immortal? "Did you offer this to the other Chosen who had nymph abilities?" I asked.
"No, for as I said, she was one that would taint the title of Water Nymph. And now, I bid you farewell and luck on your journey."
With that and another pearly smile, she held out her hand for me to take. I looked around the room one last time, then I took her hand and was suddenly back in my room. I was amazed. Had I really visited Ogygia, Calypso's home? It was terrifying but thrilling. Her telling me I had the chance to become immortal terrified me even more, but it also motivated me. If she, a nymph and sister of Calypso, believed in me enough to offer immortality, then I had to be able to find the other Chosen and live harmoniously, right? That thought finally let me sleep and rest up for the first day of my search.
The morning of my birthday I got up before dawn. Butterflies were wreaking havoc in my stomach, and my mouth was dry as I stood on the front lawn of my house with my entire family, only holding a bag of my most precious possessions: a few sketch books that were half-filled with my drawings, my coral necklace, three of my favourite well-thumbed books, a few beautiful dresses that my great aunt made for me, and 900 dollars and a credit card sewn into the bag's lining. That bag was the only thing I was taking with me other than the clothes on my back, which was why my family gave me the credit card, which they would continuously pay for me so I was never without money.
"Alright, I guess it's time?" I asked as I saw the sun start to rise behind my gathered family. My mom cried out and hugged me hard, and my dad had to pry her off me before he kissed me on each cheek and made a shooing motion with his hands. "Off you go!" he said with a smile before herding my family inside. Everyone went with him except for my great aunt Agatha, the one who made me the beautiful dresses. I was happy she had stayed to speak to me was a Chosen whose descendent of Hermes died before she found them. Thankfully, Zeus took pity on events out of her control and gave them another Chosen, me, 30 years later.
"Do you feel like you're ready?" she asked, taking my hands in hers. "Not at all," I responded. All she did was smile and hug me, and then she walked inside the house as well.
I stood on the grass staring at my house until the sun was at eye level, and then I turned around and began walking to the bus station. I knew it would probably be the last time for a long while that I saw my family.
Four years later, I was living in Greece, because I had quite literally been everywhere in the world. I kept in frequent contact with my family through hand-written letters, and my sketchbook collection had grown, along with my collection of favourite novels that now took up an entire floor-to-ceiling shelf. The bag I had originally set out with was worn but still used every day, and I never took off my coral necklace. I was making my living by working in an antique jewelry store in Athens, near the center of the city and the Acropolis. My house, small but beautiful with white-washed walls and blue shutters and a flourishing garden, was in a suburb of Athens. By that time I could speak and write in fluent English, French, Greek, German, Spanish, and Japanese. I could also speak and write perfectly in Latin, something I'd always wanted to learn and found someone to teach me while in Papua New Guinea, of all places.
I'd saved Greece as my last place to check, thinking that would be the last place I'd find my fellow Chosen, it being far too easy. I was told through family legend that if the other Chosen was near--maybe within 100 miles--I would be able to feel them, no matter what. Even though I wasn't sure what they meant by being able to "feel" that the other Chosen was near, my great aunt assured me I would know, but even though I'd been everywhere, I still hadn't felt the presence of Hermes' descendent. I had completely given up hope of breaking the curse on Calypso and Hermes and becoming immortal.
Towards the end of my 5th month living in Greece, I woke up with a dull headache. It was barely noticeable, so I assumed it would go away in a little while and went to work as usual. By the time I'd gone on my lunch break, the headache felt like a huge elephant surrounded by buzzing bees stomping through my head. I had taken something for the pain a few hours before, but it hadn't worked at all, and I couldn't take something else so soon. I ate lunch in the Acropolis that day, hoping the soothing feeling of being close to Athena would help with the headache. Eventually, I picked up my head in hopes of the blue sky dulling the pain, and saw the man standing in front of me. The pain stopped immediately.
He was handsome the same way I was beautiful; we both looked very much like our ancestors. He was blond haired, tan skinned, tall and muscular, and had such dark brown eyes that they appeared black. He was also grinning from ear to ear like the Cheshire Cat with his hands crossed in front of his chest. And just like that, I knew that I had been wrong to lose hope of ever finding Hermes' descendent, because he was right there, standing in front of me. Instead of me having to find him, he had found me.
Unfortunately, it seemed the "live together in harmony" bit of Zeus' curse was going to be my undoing.
"Well, well, well, what have we here?" he grinned maliciously.
"You know perfectly well who I am," I grumbled, gathering my lunch and standing up as tall as my height allowed. Unfortunately, my intimidation tactic didn't work--he was at least six feet tall, and I was only five.
"Well you're certainly cute. It shouldn't be that hard for us to get along."
"After meeting you, I'm not so sure I want to break this curse," I muttered and glared as I pushed him aside. I began walking back towards the jewelry store, since my break ended in ten minutes, and that was how long it took to walk back to the shop. Sadly, he followed me the whole way. Finally I stopped walking, spun to face him, and glared. He just stood there smirking, arms crossed, glancing amusedly between me and the shop's owner who was calling my name, having spotted me down the street.
"So your name's Brooke Levendakis, is it?"
I noticed his accent sounded faintly European, as though he'd spent some time there as a child but grown up someplace else. I began to wonder where before I caught what I was thinking, reminding myself that he is a descendent of Hermes, who was an enemy of Calypso, who I was a descendent of. In other words, he was the enemy. "Yes, that is my name. Now if you would kindly leave me alone?" I snapped before spinning back around and finishing walking to the shop. I quietly told the owner, Rhea, that I would only be a minute. She looked first at me, then at him, then back at me. She then smiled and winked and ran inside. I internally groaned. I had thought it would be nice to be around someone who had known me since I was a child and was like a mother to me. Unfortunately for me, I forgot that a mother's primary objective is to set up her daughter with nice, attractive men. The man behind me fit the attractive part, but didn't exactly fall into the "nice" category, but Rhea couldn't have known that.
"She seems friendly. Pity you aren't the same," he mocked, "Don't you even want to know my name?"
"Not in the least," I said, glancing him over one last time to confirm my opinion that he was a pompous jerk before walking inside the shop. Just as I almost had the door closed, he stuck his foot in the way and said, "Stephan Mavros."
With that and another cocky half-smile, he saluted me and walked away. I watched him until he disappeared from view, then shut the door and turned around to see Rhea looking at me expectantly. "Well?" she asked, "Who is he? Did you finally meet someone? Are you dating him? Where does he live? Is he just visiting? What's hi-"
"Rhea," I interrupted, eyes closed and pinching the bridge of my nose, "Not right now."
Every day after that, just when my lunch break began, he would be waiting outside the shop for me. Rhea was overjoyed--me, not so much. I realized that I had a job to carry out, but something about him made me want to scream and swoon all at once. Oddly, though, he almost seemed to want to play nice, get along, and break the curse. Sure, he was always snarky and sarcastic, but it was more playful than biting--like a big kid to a little kid, trying to be cool and impressive, but not cruelly so.
One day I decided to just eat lunch in the back of the shop, hoping to avoid Stephan. Just as I started to eat I heard the bell ring over the door, and a low voice speaking to Rhea. After a minute the curtain separating the customer area from the back whisked open to reveal Stephan with his customary smirk that I found myself growing uncomfortably used to. Only, it wasn't his usual smirk--his face was set in it, but his eyes weren't right. They weren't teasingly playful like normal, they almost seemed timid, apprehensive. "Felt like avoiding me, hmm? Good thing Rhea likes me so much," he said, unmoving.
After a moment of us staring at each other, I rolled my eyes and said, "Well? Are you sitting down?" After that he scoffed, but sat anyways. After I gave him some food and we began our usual routine of eating and verbally sparring, I noticed his usual smirk still wasn't right, but this time his eyes weren't apprehensive. They were relieved and smiling. For some reason, that made me feel happy, like I'd done a good deed, and I realized it made me very happy to make him happy. I felt myself freeze, and Stephan must've picked up on it too, because he said, "Brooke? What is it?"
"Nothing," I quickly replied, slipping back into my usual self, "Just.... Couldn't remember if I shut off all the lights in my house before I left for work today." Stephan quirked an eyebrow, obviously not believing the pitiful story I made up on the spot, but let it pass and went back to baiting me.
A week after that, while I was in the back of the shop organizing some new acquisitions, I heard the door chime open, Stephan and Rhea's voices, then the door chime again. A minute or two later Rhea walked over to me with a huge grin on her face, holding a letter with my name on it that had very obviously been sealed once, opened, then hastily sealed again. I looked, unsurprised, at Rhea, one eyebrow cocked. She just giggled and thrust it at me before going back to the main are of the shop. I opened the hastily resealed letter and pulled out a folded sheet of paper that only bared an address and the words, "8 o'clock, don't eat dinner, and don't you dare look as shabby as usual." I could feel myself smiling softly, and heard Rhea cackling out front.
At 8 o'clock I was standing in front of the address on the paper, a large house with a terrace and what looked like a beautiful garden. I had dressed in one of the dresses my great aunt made me, my favourite one: it was a royal blue colour, like lapis lazuli, and floor-length with a sash and short sleeves. I rapped on the door twice, and it opened not two seconds later to reveal Stephan, looking much the same as usual--very well dressed. He glanced me over, and rather than a smirk, I got a smile. "Well, you definitely don't look as shabby as usual," he grinned. I rolled my eyes and smiled back, and he stepped aside and waved me in. "Out on the terrace," he pointed as I walked past him. On the terrace there was a beautiful dinner setup, for two people. It was very obviously romantic, and I could feel myself blushing lightly. Stephan walked out behind me and was about to say something playfully snarky when he saw me blushing, and instead smiled softly and pulled out a chair for me to sit in.
Dinner passed surprisingly well. We were actually nice to each other, and I learned a lot about Stephan Mavros, descendent of Hermes. He was a year older than me and could run at 40 mph (the main indicator that he was his family's Chosen), his favourite colour was dark red, he was the oldest of four siblings, he'd set a few Olympic records in athletics, snowboarding, and swimming, and went to school for astronomy. By the end of the night, I felt more relaxed and comfortable with him than I ever had with anyone else.
After dinner we walked through the garden. "Do you like plants?" he asked while we were walking. The night was beautiful, and I could see all the Greek constellations in the sky. "Yes," I replied, "I always kept a garden at home, and I have a small one at my house." After that we were silent for a few minutes, but it was a nice silence. Eventually I heard Stephan groan something before he pulled me to him to kiss me. Just as his lips touched mine, we heard a man and a woman yelling, "FINALLY!"
We jumped apart to see something we never thought we would: Hermes and Calypso standing in front of us. Calypso looked just like her sister said she and I did, with dark hair, fair skin, and pale green eyes. She was wearing a beautiful, blue, ancient Grecian wrapped dress, and smiling at me and Stephan. Hermes looked very much like Stephan, only Stephan was slightly more boyish looking, and Hermes had bright blue eyes rather than very dark brown. Hermes was floating slightly above the ground, his famous winged golden shoes strapped on his feet and golden wand in his hand, and he was also smiling at us.
"Thank you for finally breaking Zeus' curse," Calypso said, smiling secretively at me, "Would you like to join my sisters and I on Ogygia?"
"What?" Stephan yelled, stunned before he spun me so that I faced him, "What is she talking about?"
"One of her sisters offered me immortality if I broke the curse," I said, looking down at my feet.
"You're not going to do it, are you?" he worriedly asked, tipping my face up.
"Of course she isn't," Hermes laughed, "She's in love with you, stupid. Can't you-"
"Thank you again," Calypso interrupted, laughing silently, "We'll be going now. You can both tell your families that you, Stephan Mavros, and you, Brooke Levendakis, were the ones to return Calypso and Hermes to their immortal status." With those parting words, both Hermes and Calypso vanished, Hermes back to Mount Olympus and Calypso to her sisters.
They left Stephan and I standing there, trying to wrap our minds around the fact that we'd actually broken the thousands-of-years-old curse. We looked at each other, and then Stephan burst out laughing, causing me to double over with laughter as well. Eventually we calmed down to where occasional giggles were bursting out, but we had mostly stopped laughing.
"Marry me?" Stephan said, looking at me with the same apprehensive eyes he'd given me only once before, and I remembered how amazing it felt to make him happy. "Of course," I grinned.