In ancient times, the Greeks worshipped many gods: Poseidon, Hades, Zeus, Hermes, Aphrodite, and the like. Eventually, those gods could come down from their home of Olympus and mate with human mortals. As a result, the world was met with a new breed of hero: the demigod. Demigods never truly blended with mortals, nor were they powerful enough to live with the gods. This caused the demigods to group together- or die at the hands of vengeful monsters straight from Tartarus. The demigods became a team- their own breed of half-blood, stronger than any mortal, and more heroic than any god.
Today, they still respect their godly parents, and are proud of the unique powers they attain due to their heritage. The Apollos are athletes; Aphrodites speak with seductive charm; Hermes are mischievous and sneaky; Poseidons speak fish, control the water near them, and are unbelievably beautiful- I mean powerful. The list goes on and on, but there is but one god that most demigods have always been unaware of, even in ancient times; perhaps the god that they should honor most of all. The god of Amazing.
Long ago, the Big Three- Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades- were the Big Four, with their oldest brother, the god of Amazing. They ruled the world together, sitting in their Celestial Bronze throne room atop Mount Olympus; Zeus with his bolt, Hades with a grimly smiling skull, Poseidon with a trident, and the god of Amazing in the center with a flowing black cape and a majestic turtle.
"Brothers," he announced one day while stroking his reptile. "Today will be a glorious day for Olympus." His brothers peered at him quizzically.
"What do you mean, brother?" Zeus asked. The god of Amazing promptly rose from his throne and strode across the room to the wide window that took over the entire wall. He peered down upon the marble columns and archways backed by the endless blue sky.
"Today," he continued, running his fingers through jet black hair, "is the day that my first son shall be born." He swished his cape with a look of triumph. Poseidon immediately jumped to his feet and applauded.
"Congratulations, Amazites. I never knew you were to have a child." He clapped his smugly- yet somehow modestly- smiling brother on the back.
"I can hardly contain my excitement," Hades noted, an unchanging expression on his pallid face as he fiddled with the skull in his hand.
"Tell me brother," Zeus asked cheerfully. "Who is the lucky mother?" Amazites stared into the distance without answering. "Well?" Zeus pressed.
"Her name," finally the god began with a smile, his glorious blue eyes shining, "is Alexandra."
The three gods paused, searching through their memories for the unfamiliar name. "Which Olympian would that be?" Zeus scratched his brown hair in confusion. Poseidon and Hades mumbled in agreement.
Amazites turned on his heel to face his brothers. "She is not an Olympian." The corner of his mouth lifted impishly.
The other gods had frozen in horror; not even the turtle moved. "A naiad then?"
Amazites shook his head proudly.
"A… mortal?" The sea god asked gingerly. To this, Amazites nodded.
"You mean that you have impregnated a mortal?" Zeus thundered. The blue skies outside roiled and clouded over, burst through with claws of lightning. The air became cold and tense as a bronze slab. Amazites half-grinned and ran his elegant fingers through the dark hair that curled at the nape of his neck. He was composed as ever, yet he had faltered slightly at his brother's outburst only moments before.
"Well yes."
His confident response was enough to send Poseidon into a determined pace, crossing the throne room with hands behind his back, like a confused moth. Amazites began to realize that what he had done would rouse unrest in other Olympians. "What is wrong with the mortals?" He asked lightly.
Zeus turned his stormy gaze to his brother. "You are the god Amazites. The god of Amazing and everything that is defined by that word. You have the power to produce monocles and top hats out of thin air. Your cape swishes in such a way that it can wipe out armies of soldiers with a single flip. Your voice is so smooth it can coax your worst enemy into a sleep of sweet dreams. Your kingdom is an island in the shape of a champagne glass with an active volcano that spews cheese and wine. It is inhabited by not only Pegasus, but a breed of unnaturally majestic turtles, butterflies that write POETRY, and wolves that are fluent in both French AND Italian. I don't even know what that means! Not to mention your smile can make even Athena swoon. You are too amazing to associate with mere, disgraceful mortals!"
Zeus's face was red and sweating. Amazites remained unruffled, although deep inside there was dread.
"I apologize for angering you brother," the god clasped his hands behind his back. "But I could not help myself around her. Alexandra… Her smile is so beautiful that I faint every time she so much as lifts her head. And her lips, brother, they are so sweet- sweeter than golden ambrosia…If you could just understand, Zeus, then-"
"No." Zeus swept away to the other side of the room. His bearded chin was in his hand as he gazed at the reflective bronze wall. "There is nothing to understand, Amazites. There should be no dallying with those filthy mortals."
Amazites pressed his lips together anxiously. "She may be mortal, but I fell in love with her. She is perfect and imperfect all at the same time. Everything she does makes my heart my beat faster. I never thought I could feel this way, not with anyone. She is everything that makes my world now, Zeus. She is with me even when I am not with her. Every day I long for her more and more; I never thought love was anything more than a word in poetry, but now it has finally caught up with me. I love Alexandra. And I could never love anybody else."
He stared into his brother's dark eyes, begging him to see, to understand. Zeus turned away from the wall. He had been caught by Amazites' reflection and knew that even he could fall victim to his brother's powers, whether he was trying to use them or not. He shook his head disgustedly.
"This is unforgivable," he spit. Amazites' face fell. Zeus marched past him and to the open wall, staring down upon the earth. His fists were clenched and his knuckles were white. The god of Amazing froze in place. He saw what was coming. This was not what he had intended. No. No.
Poseidon grabbed his brother's arm to hold him back from the window. "Zeus," he pleaded. "Don't do this." Hades closed his eyes and shook his head solemnly.
"It is the only thing that can be done, Poseidon."
The sea god took a forced step back, gripping his trident. He was the most merciful of the brothers; it pained him to see this sort of thing happen. He glanced helplessly at Amazites, knowing there was nothing that could be done. Zeus lifted his hand, cupping the bolt in his work-roughened fingers. He pulled his arm back to strike, but the Amazing god cried out. "Zeus, stop!"
Zeus did not stop. He launched his arm forward and the bolt of lightning crashed down in a delicate rod upon the earth. It lit the small home of Alexandra into a beautiful, dangerous fire that was extinguished as soon as it had burned to life, leaving behind only the charred skeleton of a building.
Amazites fell to his knees. His gorgeous face was twisted with horrible sadness. Zeus stepped away from the edge and faced the throne room. He set his shoulders back but there was a stripe of pity in his eyes, if only a little. Poseidon focused on the metallic floor. He glanced at his kneeling brother sadly. The god of Amazing was silent. He was pity and love and sorrow, painted into a single, beautifully toxic being. A single tear spilled over his prominent cheekbone. A silent sob from the strongest god.
Poseidon had never seen his brother weep before that day. Hades shuddered in his obsidian throne. Zeus and Poseidon turned to him simultaneously.
He heaved a breath and with a hoarse voice whispered, "The souls."
Amazites' chest hitched. "Alexandra…"
He knew she was gone. To the Fields of Punishment, most likely, for her romantic affiliations with a god. And his son- oh, his precious son- probably bound inside of his mother's soul, as he was in her womb.
"No," Hades said. Amazites lifted his gaze to his unnerving brother, realizing he had spoken his previous thoughts. "Your son is not bound to Alexandra's soul. Not yet." His pale face was lined and his hands were clenched under his dark robe. It was obvious: the god of the dead was letting the child live- for at least as long as he could keep himself away from the writhing young soul. Amazites saw that his morbid brother was helping him.
Suddenly charged with willpower, he stood up and ran to the open wall, where the wind now swept and snatched at everything within reach. Zeus's clouds of lightning and thunder rumbled and scratched in a gray cauldron. Amazites turned to briefly nod at his brothers, his eyes bluer than anything on earth or Olympus. They were lit with raw sorrow and determination.
It took Zeus a moment to process what was happening. When the idea came upon him, he clouded with anger.
"You dare, brother?" He bellowed over the overwhelming sound of thunder. "You dare to chase after the life of a mortal you call a son, and risk your life in exchange? If you stay, Amazites, there will be a chance. You will be forgiven. All of this will be forgotten. But if you go, I can assure you, your punishment will be beyond eternal suffering."
Amazites knew this was true; he would certainly pay the price for his actions. But there was nothing in his mind or in his nature that could keep him from saving his son. Looks like Aphrodite finally caught up to me, he thought. But he did not turn to face his brother, only said, "Soon you will learn Zeus. You will find that mortals are not as weak and disgraceful as you think. They are strong. Stronger than any Olympian. Their lives are miniscule, and yet they learn to love with more power than any god. You will come to learn that you are not as powerful as you think- that there are things beyond the power of any god, or Titan, or any other being. You will learn these things, Zeus, whether it be in a day or in a millennium. But you will learn."
With his words left floating in the air of the throne room like falling feathers, Amazites leaped from the edge of the large window and into a roiling storm. His cape flapped behind him as he dove through the gray soup of clouds. Lightning nearly struck him a thousand times, but the god kept his brother at bay with his own amazing powers.
The world began to open up around him. Below, he saw green plateaus of olives and grapes, a white-capped mountain, villages of rain-soaked people. Amazites spotted a smoldering square in a piece of secluded land, where a hut had once squatted, a hut he was familiar with. Alexandra's.
He landed gracefully in the pile of charred debris. The rain whipped his back but he ignored it, pulling away chunks of ashen stone and burnt wood planks. He searched the ruins for a sign, any sign, of his love. He called her name as he ripped at the piles of rubble with bleeding fingers and an animal-like determination. He knew she was dead. Worse than dead. But he couldn't help it- he needed her.
And he found her. Deep in the mountain of debris was her delicate body, mangled and twisted and burned black on her fingertips. Her belly was big and ready to be emptied. Amazites brushed Alexandra's dark hair from her face, kissed her cold cheek, and prepared to save his son.
Minutes later, he pulled the red, slimy infant from the mother's sliced stomach. The child was still. He pulled his son closer and listened for a heartbeat. It was there, slow and unsteady. Amazites slapped the newborn and it began screaming in pain. He let out a sigh of relief. His son was alive. He kissed the child's forehead and smiled at him.
"The first of his kind," he sighed. "A demigod." He glanced at the sky, with its threatening claws of lightning and held his baby closer. "But you will not be the last."
Suddenly, a streak of blue-green light descended from the clouds. It landed at Amazites' feet and he took a step back. Poseidon lifted himself upright, his gleaming silver breastplate spattered with blood. There was a cut scarring his face that hadn't been there before. His trident was gone.
"Brother," he reached out his arms. "Let me have the child."
Amazites took another step back, cradling the boy. "What do you want with my son?" He growled.
Poseidon replied urgently. "I must hide him before Zeus kills him. It won't be long before he gets down here."
Amazites wrinkled his brow. "Where will you hide him, then?"
"There are few places where Zeus cannot find him. There are even fewer places where he will be safe from all other harm. However, I can hide him still, in the deepest parts of the ocean, where it freezes even in the summer. Your son will be safe there, frozen until the time comes." His sea green eyes beckoned Amazites.
"Do you swear," he said, "that you will not release him until there is someone who will care for him, with a mother and a loving home?" It was the one thing he could not provide to his new son. But he did not want him to live that way, the way he had. He wanted his son to have love- to know it, experience it from the second he would be reborn, from the ocean's tides.
Poseidon nodded. "I swear it. And you must know: I care for you, brother. No matter what Zeus does to you or thinks of you, I have always cared for you." His hand was on Amazites' shoulder. "But we must hurry."
Amazites looked down upon his son with a proud smile. The baby still wept, but there was the beginnings of an oddly-pleasant smirk on his small face. The god smirked back at him; he was sweating and dirty and bleeding and yet he was still the most beautiful sight there ever was. "I love you, my son." He kissed him and placed the infant in Poseidon's arms. The sea god gingerly wrapped him up and set off for the sea in a swarm of blue light.
Amazites stood with empty arms and a sullen heart. His son was gone. His beloved was dead. His punishment would certainly be great. It already was.
When Zeus finally descended from Olympus, only moments later, the ruins had ceased smoldering. The god of the sky approached his older brother. Amazites did not move or try to defend himself. He just stood in his place, beside Alexandra. Zeus looked him hard in the eyes.
"Do you remember those many years ago, when we brought our father Kronos to ruin?" His voice was rough and worn. Amazites did not reply- of course he remembered.
"It was not such a bloodlust rage as many believed." He stared into the distance as he spoke. "It hurt to kill our father, even if he was the embodiment of evil itself." He looked down at his brother who stood with his shoulders set, prepared for what happened next. "And you must understand, brother; that is how I feel now." He looked pitifully around at the ruins and back at the dejected god.
"I'm so sorry."
He lifted both of his arms and closed his thundering eyes. His muscular hands crackled with electricity and there was a rumbling nearby.
It happened in a flash of light. Seconds later there stood only Zeus, his mouth sour with the words of banishment. He had sent his brother into the deepest pits of Tartarus, and deeper still, beyond the chasms of Chaos and Night. No one- not even the god of Amazing could escape from there.
Zeus slumped over. That was it, he thought. There would be no more of his great brother Amazites, or his dearest love and their unborn child. The lightning god wept. He wept over his brother now, but soon he would weep over his own stupidity.
Poseidon lay the small bundle down on the sandy ocean floor. The child was frozen in the god's own ice, in the chilliest part of the sea. Amazites' son lay unmoving inside the outcropping of frosty boulders. He would be safe here, unnoticed by the god of the sky. Poseidon moved away from the child, golden sand sprinkling the little body. "I will come for you soon, nephew," he said into the open water. "When it is safe. For now you must carry on your father's amazing. But I will one day free you from my frozen hands, young one. Then someone will have to impact the world with his amazingness- you will, demigod."
He set his jaw with a final look at the child… and swam away from his secret.
Years passed. The child of amazing slept at the bottom of the ocean. Hades was banished from Olympus for ignoring Zeus's wishes and aiding Amazites. He was forced to stay in the Underworld for all eternity. Zeus took the place of Amazites as the leader of Mount Olympus. Every measure was taken to cover up the seams where the memories of the former god still slipped through. But it was not long before the first mortal caught Zeus's eye. He found that she was not disgraceful; not stupid or hideous or unworthy. And he wept- for he knew his brother had been right.
From there on, it was no longer considered scandalous to associate with mortals. The demigods came quickly after. When Zeus' first halfblooded child was born, he realized what a mistake he had made. His own brother he had killed for doing exactly what he had just done. And for every demigod he had after that, he realized his stupidity more and more; with Hercules, and Jason, and Perseus, and Thalia Grace. Yet he never apologized. He never spoke a word of his regret to anyone, Olympian or not. So the race of demigods had been born, thanks to Amazites, yet no half-blood would ever hear his name. Not even his own son.
The year was 1861. A young man was strolling along the shores of the Welsh coast. His brown hair blew in an unruly mess, his green-gold eyes sharp and observing. He was lost in thought as his boots scuffed the sand. He had failed his friend. He had been responsible for helping a longtime companion that lived in the nearby countryside. There had been an anxious mother with a big, pregnant belly. "My son," she had wept. "He is not well. I don't know if will make it through the birth." She had cried on his shoulder until his shoulder until his sleeves were wet with tears.
And she had been right to fear. Only a few hours before, the young man- ad doctor of sorts- had helped deliver the baby. The father, his friend, had been away with his daughter, unaware that the baby was arriving so soon. The mother had fainted from the pain and would surely not be awake for hours. But the child she had bore was not breathing when he had come out from the womb. The young man had expected nothing less and already had had the casket ready that morning, not that the mother knew.
The young man was afraid; he did not wish to break the bad news upon his friends so heartlessly, but what was there to do? He was wandering now, trying to get his thoughts together. What could he possibly say to the mother of an unborn child? He tripped along the beach, nervously running his fingers through his hair. The tide was in, waves of white foam crashing along the shoreline and splashing the man's face. That's when he saw it.
A small bundle had washed up next to his foot. The man lifted the naked infant and held him close. He listened to his little heartbeat; it was steady. How could a newborn baby be alive after being in the ocean for so long? He thought. Why would a newborn baby be in the ocean at all?
The young man shrugged. He was used to things more peculiar than this- a baby born from the tides. He himself was probably born in a stranger way. He stared shrewdly at the child, observing ever inch of him. He had a fringe of black hair atop his round head; a healthy child, obviously. But there was still a chance he would not survive.
The man blinked in surprise- then smiled. The infant opened his eyes, wide and bluer than blue. He lifted the baby against the glowing sun. "I'm going to like you, little survivor." He shrugged off his coat wrapped it around the baby. Holding the bundle close, he ran off, away from the setting sun, just like the god of the sea had all those years ago.
When the young man finally arrived at the country home of the unlucky mother, he washed the baby with water from the well outside. He dried him off and swathed him in a warm, fleece blanket. The baby slept soundly, breathing in and out and the man finally smoothed his sweaty hair under a cap. He could only hope the child would live past twelve… but he must be a special child, thought the young man, otherwise he would've died in the sea.
Minutes later, the woman opened her puffy eyes. "My baby…?" She asked hopelessly. The young man grinned with perfect teeth, startling the woman.
"Is right here," he finished, placing the warm bundle of child into her arms. She gasped in delight just as the front door of the house opened. A muscular man ran into the room with a fearful little girl clasped in his hand. It was a tearful scene, as you can imagine. The family had their new son with them now; they had not given birth to a dead infant. Or at least, not as far as they would ever know.
When the general excitement had passed, the woman looked up with glowing eyes at the young man. "How can we ever thank you, Magnus? You saved our son."
Magnus shrugged, "I didn't do a thing, Linette. It was all thanks to the sheer will of your son here." He pointed at the infant. "So what're you going to name him?"
The woman looked between the warlock and her husband, then at her newborn boy. "I think he shall be called Will." It was a fitting name for a boy who had survived because of just that- willpower.
"Will Herondale," stated the warlock. "I like it."
William Herondale: shadowhunter, son of Amazites, the first demigod. A boy who survived on the willingness of not only himself, but that of his father, of Poseidon, and of a good-hearted warlock named Magnus. The child would follow in his father's footsteps, becoming beautiful, witty, loving, and powerful on the inside. Will Herondale would be truly Amazing.