Chapter 1-Forsaken

Somewhere in Thessaly, Greece

Dorothea Liapakis was not a princess. She was not the daughter of a wealthy father who inherited a large sum of money. She was not someone who had carved out a strong existence for herself. Indeed, Dorothea Liapakis was nothing particularly special at all. She was but a young woman, working on her family's long running olive farm. Like the generations that came before her, Dorothea toiled away at the earth and picked at the olive trees, making sure to capture all of the delectable green olives off the trees before the harvest ended. After that, she would join her four brothers and three sisters, along with their old but still capable parents, and crush the olives into olive oil to sell at market. Some of the olives, along with the oil they made, she kept for herself. And each year, she repeated the cycle once more with the same youthful exuberance that she had done it when she first started harvesting the olives at the age of six.

This meager existence was certainly not one that would attract Dorothea much attention. She had attended a small rural school in her youth, but she far enjoyed spending time in the fields of olive trees then she did studying books. She was not the smartest woman, not the most devout in her faith, but she was wise in the ways of survival and the agrarian arts, listening intently to every instruction her father gave her toward the harvesting of each olive crop; of how their secret irrigation technique kept their trees producing more olives then any other family owned farm in Thessaly, of how the soil was always carefully rotated every three years to ensure that it stayed bountiful. She could not match her father in the zeal of his prayers to the lord, but Dorothea always obeyed her father's will, and remained devoted to her earthly one as he was devoted to both his heavenly father and his earthen family.

But what Dorothea did have, as the third child of her parents George and Marilena, was immense beauty. From the very day she was born, those in the Liapakis family and friends of the family had always remarked that she had an almost divine quality to her beauty. As she grew and matured into a young woman, Dorothea became even more beautiful, so beautiful that many a man with a camera and a contract was turned down by her simple ways. Dorothea had no desire to merely be some human sculpture, a sex symbol that men could photograph to show what beauty could be like. All she wished was to live a simple life and continue her father's tradition of producing the finest olives in Thessaly. If she was going to be with a man, Dorothea thought, it would have to be someone who would value her for more then just her beauty, but would be an equal to her and desire to work with her hand in hand.

Such a man came along one day when Dorothea traveled with her father to Larissa, the capital city of the state of Thessaly. At the market one day, Dorothea was sitting patiently while her father haggled prices with potential buyers at the market, wasting away in boredom when he came to her. He was a tall man, with a build almost all others would envy, looking like a hero from the stories of old that Dorothea had heard her father tell to her brothers. He asked to try some of the olives, with Dorothea offered, and he promptly bought two bottles of their oil. At first, he did not introduce himself, but he later revealed his name to be Theokritos, or Theo for short. Soon after that first encounter, Dorothea received a letter from Theo, proclaiming her family's olives to be the best he had had in a long time. Furthermore, he looked forward to buying more olives during their next trip to market, and wished them further success with their coming harvests. Each time thereafter that Dorothea traveled to Thessaly with her father, Theo would be there, and he would always buy many bottles of olive oil and many of their finest green olives. And each time he was there, he managed to further win over George as an ideal suitor for his daughter, and would get the older man to turn his gaze away from Dorothea and him as they would wander about the streets of Larissa.

Each time they walked together he spoke in the sweetest and most romantic of overtures. He listed carefully as she spoke of her love of nature; of her personal flower gardens that she tended on their farm and her love of horses and other animals, and of how she would help her father count the olives and process the oil in a manner that fewer and fewer Greek olive farms continued to do. And she in turn would listen of his knowledge of the world; his inside knowledge of the political world and history, particularly regarding the ancient times in Greece. As their visits grew longer and more frequent, Theo would make bolder and bolder promises to Dorothea, claiming that she would never find a man like him in the world, and that he would swear by his life to protect her should anything happen. Dorothea was flattered by his sincerity, but did not take him seriously. She did not believe there was any way Theo could be the man he claimed to be, and that she was probably another one of many women that he consorted with. Surely, she believed, a man of his figure and knowledge could not possibly want a simple farm girl like her. Even when he returned with jewels and clothing the likes of which she had never believed he could possess and was given these items as gifts, Dorothea turned Theo down.

It was not until one night, when Dorothea and her father went home, that Theo was able to win her over. That night, as they made their way back in their horse drawn wagon from Larissa to their farm, they were attacked by a group of five highwaymen. The men demanded that all the money they had collected that day was to be handed over. George initially refused, but the highwaymen had other plans. They took Dorothea hostage, holding her at gun point until George relented and went to reach for his money. But that never occurred, for Theo appeared on the highway. And when he appeared, the starry night sky disappeared, swallowed whole by dark clouds which rumbled and cracked like no storm Dorothea or her father had ever seen.

"You'll let her go," Theo demanded. "Her father and her have no quarrel with you miserable lot." The highwaymen stood firm, taunting Theo by kissing Dorothea's neck and grabbing her breast. Dorothea squirmed, struggling to let any form of vocalization out of her mouth as the highwayman held her mouth shut and strangled her throat with his fist.

The storm clouds grew darker, and from their folds lightning began to flash. The horses neighed and whined, kicking at their reigns to run free. Theo stood firm as the lightning flashed harder and louder, and the wind picked up stronger and stronger.

"Let her go," he repeated. "Or what?" the highwayman holding Dorothea asked. He pressed his revolver deep into her temple. "You don't even have a weapon, man! Just go home before I decide to blow your brains out along with the old man's." The storm clouds grew more tempestuous, and Theo stood ever resolute.

"I'll say it one more time. You'll let her and her father go," Theo demanded. He emphasized the "one more time" portion of his demand, making it clear this was the last time he was going to make it.

"Who do you think you are, buddy?" another one of the highwaymen asked. "Do you think you're Zeus or something?"

Theo scratched his bearded chin and smirked, caressing his brown goatee as the storm clouds became more and more violent, and the lightning appeared to strike closer and closer to the earth.

"And what if I was?" he asked. At that moment, the highwaymen laughed for a second. But their laughing stopped when the storm clouds only grew more violent. The sky was so black that no light could penetrate it, the wind was so violent that trees struggled to hold onto the earth with their roots. And the lightning, the ever present lightning of the tempestuous storm clouds, was striking no longer the air, but the ground around Theo. Even more startling to the highwaymen was the path the lightning took to the ground, as it seemed to emerging not just from the clouds, but from Theo's hand.

"Oh Jesus Christ," the highwayman holding Dorothea swore. His hands trembled, struggling to hold the revolver as he lost control of his extremities.

"Sorry," Theo mocked. He raised his right hand, all five of his fingers outstretched as the storm clouds grew as violent as they could. "You got the wrong guy." And with that, five bolts of lightning traveled into each of the highwaymen, charring their bodies and stopping their hearts cold, as Dorothea and her father were released from the grip of the bandits.

As Dorothea fell to the ground in tears, Theo rushed to her side and held her close. The storm clouds soon began to dissipate, as the wind died down and the lightning stopped cracking across the sky.

"Theo," Dorothea stuttered. "Theo..did you really just..?"

"Shhh," he said. He rubbed the tears from under her eyes and held her close, letting her cry gently as George came to him and knelt on one knee.

"How can I ever thank you, my lord?" he asked. Theo made no verbal request, instead electing to nod toward the young woman he held in his arms. George looked at the two and nodded in affirmation, making Theo smile and hold Dorothea closer to his body.

"I will assure you that you shall never have to worry about bandits on this road again," Theo declared. "And I shall assure you that as long as we are together, your crops shall be more bountiful and your olives and their oil shall taste like nothing this world has ever tasted." George was humbled, and bowed his head in devotion as he rested on his knees.

"Thank you," he said. His voice trembled as he knelt at Theo's foot. "Thank you so very much, lord Zeus."

Several Months Later
Atop Mount Olympus

The normal tranquility atop Mount Olympus was shattered when Zeus returned. He barged through the doors of its main ramparts, stomping down the hall in a manner so furious that it made the whole mountain quake as if it was going to fall apart at its seams. Hephaestus and his brother, Ares, each grabbed weapons, fearing that the shaking was the result of an attack, perhaps even by the Titans themselves that Zeus had fought so hard to locked away in Tartarus. Artemis, who was looking to strike down a poacher hunting a stag in her forest, rushed back to Olympus as she felt the earth shake under Zeus's might. Even Poseidon and Hades, whom seldom left their respect realms of the sea and underworld, rushed from their realms at the feelings of the earth shaking the way it was. Poseidon in particular knew that for the earth to shutter in such a manner without his own doing meant that something had truly enraged his brother.

The first to greet him at the doors was Hermes, the trusted messenger of Olympus and Zeus's primary liason between himself and his mortal lovers when he was too busy attending to business on Mount Olympus. Zeus's furious stomping was so strong that it sent Hermes's normally tightly strapped winged helmet bouncing off his head and onto the floors of Olympus's grand halls. He picked up his helmet and chased after his father, hovering up over the floor as his father moved wrathfully through Olympus's halls.

"Father," Hermes called out to his dad. He flew alongside his father's head, trying to make eye contact with the king of the Gods. "Father, what is it? What has happened to invoke your might wrath?"

"Out of my way, Hermes," Zeus ordered. He swatted his hand, slapping his son aside and sending him into the walls of Olympus. "I don't have time for you at this moment."

"But father," Hermes said. He gathered himself and flew alongside his father's side. "Surely, father, there must be something that.."

"I said get out of my way, Hermes!" Zeus shouted. With that, Zeus again swatted his son to the side and into the floor of Olympus's halls. But before he could walk any bit further, Poseidon and Hades appeared in front of him, Poseidon holding his trident at Zeus's chest.

"Move along, brothers," Zeus demanded. "I have no problems with either of you at this moment. It is my.."

"Zeus, you will talk before you continue on with this madness," Poseidon ordered. "Do you not realize what you are doing right now?"

"Yes, brother," Hades said. "Was it really so necessary to cause an earthquake of that nature? Charon cannot ferry all those souls over to the underworld by himself!"

"He will be compensated then in full, Hades," Zeus said. "Now, if both of you will excuse me and get back to your realms, I have business with.."

"Listen to your brother, Zeus!" Poseidon demanded. "What has occurred in the world to invoke such wrath upon it at your hands?"

"Nothing that you two or any of my children could have possibly caused," Zeus said. "Only one being left in this world could cause me such strife and invoke such wrath. And unless you two want to be targets of my wrath, I suggest you both stay out of my way!"

With that, Zeus continued to storm down the hallway past his brothers. The two chased after him as he marched down the hallway, marching toward the very end of the hallway. As they chased him, Poseidon began to piece together what had transpired to bring Zeus into this wrathful state. He may not have known what exactly caused it, but he knew something was done by one being and only one being to incur it. And as he chased after his elder brother, he saw the king of the Olympian gods reach the large doors at the end of Olympus's golden halls to the personal chamber of the King and Queen of Olympus. And as Zeus went to open them, Poseidon watched as he was stopped by his elder sister.

"You mustn't do this, Zeus!" Demeter, the elder goddess of fertility and agriculture, begged. "You know how she can be with your behavior.."

"What did you say, you old hag?" Zeus shouted. He grabbed Demeter by her throat, holding her up and making her squirm in his fist. "With my behavior? What I have done but.."

At that moment, Zeus dropped Demeter to the floor. A burning sensation shot across his spine, making him lose his grip on the goddess. Turning around, he saw his other sister, Hestia, standing behind him with her hand outstretched, flaming from the fire pulsing through her veins. Zeus stood up to face her, staring her down with his cold gaze.

"You dare challenge me, Hestia?" he questioned.

"You've caused enough damage today, my king," she stated calmly. "I will not let you cause anymore, especially to my sisters."

"How dare you stand in front of me," Zeus grumbled. "I shall put you in your place just as I will put your sister in her place." He held out his hand, grabbing a ball of lightning and making the entire room flicker with the light of a billion watts of electricity pulsating from his body.

"You may strike me with a million lightning bolts," Hestia declared. "But you shall not strike down my sisters!" And with that, Hestia threw a wave of fire at her king, watching a scorching wave of flame burn through the halls of Olympus. As it shot across the room, Zeus threw his lightning bolts at the goddess of hearth and flame, watching the two forces collide. The other gods present watched in awe at the battle, as the wave of fire and bolts of lightning collided again and again. Though Hestia was able to halt some of the bolts, Zeus only summoned more and power to direct at the goddess. Hestia tried to summon all the flame she could, but the King of the Gods commanded a force far more powerful then her flames. As she became overwhelmed, Poseidon and Hades jumped to intervene to stop the onslaught. But before they could, the oak doors that led to Zeus's chamber slammed open, casting a bright light upon the hallway, with a shadowed figure in the middle. All the gods focused on the figure, which stepped out to reveal itself as none other then Hera, queen of the gods.

"Stop this," she demanded. "Stop this, all of you! Can't you all see that you have caused enough damage today?"

"You," Zeus interrupted. He faced his wife for a brief moment, locking their sapphire blue eyes together as he moved toward her. Hera stood firm, not stepping back an inch as her king and husband moved closer, causing the peacock feathers in her auburn hair to nearly come lose with the wind that Zeus was generating from his anger.

"Yes, me," Hera shot back. "What have I done this time, my king? What is it that I have done to incur such a temper tantrum the likes of which is leveling our land as we speak. What have I done?"

Zeus growled before grabbing Hera by the collar of her flowing red robe. "You," he said. His words were spoken deep and slowly, as if they were grinding against his teeth, tongue, and walls of his mouth. "You bitch! What have you done this time?" He slapped her across the face, holding her so she did not fly across the room. Hera turned her head to stare down her husband, looking more angry and more resolved then she did before she slapped him. The other gods watched closely as Zeus hit Hera again, knowing better then to intervene. Even Hestia, who had so often been the one to step between Zeus and Hera when they fought, stood aside as her sister was beaten by her brother's hand.

Zeus beat her until he could realize that it did nothing, and set her down on her feet. She stared at him, not saying a word and remaining every resolved to say nothing in the face of her husband and king. Staring into his eyes, Hera turned around and walked back into their chamber, slamming the door shut on her husband. Furious, Zeus opened the door and followed inside. The other gods present decided to stand by the door, holding their ears up to hear the argument going on inside.

"How could you do this?" Zeus demanded. He walked after his wife, following her until she looked out one of the windows to her chamber where she would watch the world from her chamber. "How could you be so cruel to her, Hera? I understand, you have been cruel to many of my consorts, and some deservedly so! But what you have done to Dorothea, I mean she has done nothing wrong! I have not brought myself into her bed yet.."

"Yet," Hera hissed. "Yet, but you would. Not only would you bring yourself into her bed, but you will, because that is who you are! You would, Zeus, because you have never met a woman that you have not liked!"

The room grew cold with her voice, Zeus sensing the rage in his queen's demeanor. He had known Hera to become mad at him for taking many lovers, but never like this. Still, he resolved to reason with her. In the end he knew no beating or physical punishment could get his message across. Only talking, like they had done so many times before, would resolve it. Slowly, he stepped closer to his wife.

"My queen," he began. "I understand your feelings." He wrapped his arm around her slowly, feeling her tremble but still not moving an inch. "I understand how you must feel to see me bed mortal women. I know how it must make you feel to see me take mortal beauty so much when I have access to easily the most beautiful woman that the universe has ever seen." He saw the tears pour down her eyes and brushed them aside, making her shiver further. "But you must understand. Everything I have with them is just passion and desire. It is carnal. It is not any love.."

At that moment, Hera turned to deliver her own slap to her husband's face. Zeus stumbled back, holding his face in pain. He knew that in terms of raw strength and without his lightning bolts, Hera could match him in a fight. Their love making sessions often seemed more like wrestling matches to him then they were any sort of normal mortal sex, and he always loved when he ultimately gave in and let him conquer her the way he knew she liked to be. And though she could curse her husband with the words that would make a Spartan warrior proud, he never knew her to strike his visage.

"It's not love," Hera said. Her voice squeaked through tears at first, but Zeus watched her collect herself and talk with the firm tone that made her an ideal second in command among the Olympians. "Yes, I know it has never been love before. With Leto, with Alcimede, with Danae, with any of those countless women that you have picked over the years. I know that, Zeus! And I had even accepted it because I thought deep down you still loved me!"

Zeus stared her intently as she continued. "But after seeing you with her and what you have done with this Dorothea, who I will add was at least up to my standards in terms of beauty, I could not let it continue! How could you, Zeus? How could you propose to wed yourself to a mortal woman?"

On the other side of the door, the other gods gasped. What Hera was accusing Zeus of was truly an unheard of charge. They knew their king loved mortal women and loved having sex with them, but they had never known Zeus to fall in love with a mortal woman. Even Alcimede, the mother of his favorite son, Heracles, was not protected by his divine power. They knew Zeus frequently cut off contact with the mothers of his children, and that Hera, even when he cheated on her, was the only woman in the universe to earn Zeus's romantic love was Hera. Even when his mortal lovers could satisfy Zeus's desires and fetishes more then Hera could, Zeus always went back to her because, as they knew, she loved him. To hear that Zeus was in love with a mortal woman was a charge that none of them could believe to be true.

"Hera, it's not what you think," Zeus said.

"It's not what I think?" Hera said. She stomped over to her husband to stare him in the eyes. "It's not what I think? Do you forget what I am patron of, Zeus?"

"Of course not!" he said. He struggled to get the right words of his mouth. "It's just not what you think.." Her hand reconnected with his face.

"I am the patroness of marriage and you think I don't recognize when someone tries to form a sacred bond with another?" she said. "Of course you were going to marry her! She had agreed to the proposal! How could you, Zeus? Does our marriage mean nothing to you?"

"Of course not, Hera," Zeus said. He tried touching her shoulders, but she slipped away, unwilling to let herself be touched by his hands. "Yes, I had fallen in love with her, I had wanted to marry her. But she is an amazing woman, a woman who.."

"Who what?" Hera asked. "What can she do that I cannot?"

"She is devoted to me, Hera," Zeus said. He watched his wife pace about in their chamber, her red robe flowing along the floor. "She is devoted to me as a husband and she would not strike me in disrespect. She would not challenge me. And she is a simple woman! All she wants is to grow olives. For Gaea's sake, is that so bad? Is that why you had to smite her, Hera? Because she grew the finest olives in all of Greece?"

When he finished, he watched her freeze still and lock her own icy gaze with his. He could see that she his words had penetrated her heart and shattered into a billion pieces. The words he had said to her shot to her very core, hurting her more then any of his lightning bolts could have. He had claimed that a mortal woman could be more devoted to her husband and be a better wife then she could. She was Hera, queen of Olympus and leader of the goddesses. Her tumultuous union with Zeus had stood for centuries as an example of how couples should remain together and cooperate in times of strife. Their union was supposed to be eternal. And Zeus had claimed that the union he was going to have with a mortal woman, a grower of olives nonetheless, was going to be a more devoted and better husband to him was a notion that she could not believe she heard.

Her response surprised Zeus. "If you think she could be a better wife, get Hades to return her from Asphodel, and live with her as a mortal then. If I'm not good enough for you as an immortal, Zeus, then you should consort only with beings whose mortality fits your desires as both a god to be worshiped and a husband to be devoted to. Obviously, my immortality somehow means I mean less devoted to you then she was, so I think you should just go."

Again, the gods on the other side gasped. Hera's charge was one that seemed absurd, as was Zeus's claim that this woman could be more devoted to him then Hera was.

"For the record," Hades said to his fellow gods. "I will not be returning her from Asphodel. I don't really make those kinds of bargains with him."

"Shut up so we can listen!" Demeter ordered. Hades rolled his eyes and remained silent.

And they grew further shocked when they heard Zeus's response. "Fine, then I shall! It does not even have to be with Dorothea. It can be with any woman! And it doesn't have to be my immortality that makes them devoted to me. I can have many women devoted to me as a mortal man and be more devoted to me then you ever were for all the millenia that we were married, Hera!"

"So be it then," Hera stated. "Go, live among mortals and let them show your devotion to you, Zeus. Go rot in this world that pays us little tribute and little respect anymore. Just get out of my sight."

With that, Zeus turned and stormed out of his chamber and out of Mount Olympus. The other gods stepped inside and gathered around Hera, who stood with a resolute gaze aimed at the world below. They remained unsure of what was to become of their kingdom, and of their king who was going to forsake his immortality for a time.