"My Queen!" A wood nymph carrying her lady's robes for the night quickly led her mistress away from the shards of glass that lay on the floor. As Hera was led away from the glass, all the pieces shook and rattled. As quick as it disfigured, the mirror repaired itself. The mirror of Infidelity. Given to Hera by Eris as a wedding present. Hera should have known that the Goddess of Discord and Chaos would take the opportunity of her husband's unfaithfulness nature to hurt her. Hera's hand that still stained the crimson color of her own blood was soon put into a bowl of healing herbs. The wound was not so deep and the cut was soon forgotten as Hera raced out of the chambers. Hera did not slow her pace as immortals alike started to take notice of her.
"The king must have taken another maiden."
"I wonder what the Queen will do next. Turn this one into a goat perhaps and serve it to Zeus?" The whispering followed her until she ran out in the gardens with her arms bracing a pillar and her breath becoming heavy. Looking at her hand and seeing the scar starting to disappear, Hera was reminded of her Immortality.
Forever immortal. Does that mean I will forever have the passion to punish these women? That thought alone made her wonder in the gardens for hours until she came back to her own room. Hera looked down upon her vanity. The glass showing a young maiden of no more than eighteen with eyes of blue and locks of gold sharing passionate kisses with a young man of similar colored hair. The young man, who always changed his appearance to please his conquest, was in the heat of his passion. His body was powerful, Hera could see that by the way he dominated his lover on the mattress. The two were laid in sheets of the god's most comfortable to the touch cotton. This reminded Hera of just a few weeks before when the mirror showed the same man but with darker hair, lying with a girl with a dark ebony mane and hazel eyes. Now that girl still had dark ebony hair and hazel eyes but her formed had changed into another creature. She still lived in the fields that she grew up in and she did depend on the land for food but her parents no longer called her by her name. Hera twisted the peacock feather that was in her hand. Placing it back in her vase she took one last look at the glass and saw the eyes of the young man look back at her for a second. Or at least she wished he did. To say that he at least knew how he hurt her and he felt sorry for it but she knew that he did not think of such things. He did what he wanted because he was the King of the Gods. She once did ask why he did this to her. I am the Zeus. Titles. That's all she has now. She is known as Zeus' wife and the Goddess of Marriage but mostly thought of Zeus's revengeful wife. Her own identity is intertwined with Zeus in a way that she was no longer anything else. Zeus knew this. It was only a century ago that Hera came to this realization and when she threatened to leave Zeus, he smirked and looked back at her with those blue eyes. "Hera, you know very well that could never do such a thing."
"Why wouldn't I?" Her eyes challenged. Her husband's steps were graceful and quick. Before Hera could move Zeus' hands were hiked up on her smooth leg to touch the lace of her slip and gripping her hair so tight that it spread pleasurable pain throughout her body. His lips were on her collar bone before they started to make their way up her neck, leaving territorial bruises made by the small bites he took in each kiss. Hera's heartbeat made her deaf to anything else and her lips opened to bring out a moan of sweet pleasure that Zeus loved to hear. It was when Zeus reached the spot beneath her ear that he kissed and trace the outer shell of her ear.
"You can never leave me. You no longer have anything else to live for but me." He said this with so much belief. "You abandoned everything for me. You gave up caring for yourself eons ago." It was those words that made her mind's eye open wide. They're room was full of hunger and raw passion. That night she saw her husband as he truly was, The King of Gods. He had no other identity. He was neither a father nor a friend. He was never a husband. When Zeus called upon her, a few times were for Godly matters but most would lead Hera to enter an empty throne room. It would only take a few seconds to make sure that she was alone for her husband to come behind her and trace her body with his lips and hands. It became a game of Mercy. He would slowly seduce her before she reacted to his senseless teasing and whimper for him to take her. She was no better than one of his mortals that he visited. The only exception was that he could call upon her for an infinitely. But even that one exception did not exclude all his lovers. After all, Persephone was born from Demeter's and Zeus's affair. When a child was born from her husband's infidelity, it hurt her the most. They were all reminders of her husband's countless mistresses. Especially when Hera saw many of them for eternity. All the children she ever conceived, Zeus has hated but the ones not from her, he praised. Hera felt sorrow for her children and knew that Zeus was right when he said her life revolved around only him. The only time she felt alive was when she either fighting with him or having one of their heated make ups in their bed. She didn't even take time to comfort her children. She was the only parent who cared for them; she should try to give them the love that they were denied by their father's. Ares had Hades for some centuries but when Hades was struck by Cupid's bow, Ares lost him to Persephone. It was when Hera opened the chambers so she could bathe that she started to plan her husband's latest lover's fate. Opening her robe and letting the material pool around her feet, Hera stepped into the wide pool. The water nymphs came to rub soothing oils on her skin. It was when a forest nymph who was also one of Zeus' favorites to regularly bed that Hera finished her plan for Zeus' latest golden haired lover. Excusing the nymph, Hera started to comb her hair with a comb that Zeus gave her for their anniversary. It was a lovely brush. It was crafted by her son Hephaestus and enchanted by his wife, Aphrodite. The brush was gold and had roses expertly designed. The soft bristles were from the rarest roots of an ancient plant. They were scented with rose oils: leaving her hair smelling like roses when she was done. Hera was staring unseeingly at her reflection and did not hear the heavy doors that lead to her chambers being opened and closed. She did see her husband's reflection looking at her with unexplainable eyes. It was the sensual touch on her hand that made her stop the stroking motions and the powerful lips on her neck that made her realize that she was no longer alone. Hera looked up at him. His robes were open to only real his hard chest and she knew what he wanted. That night was like any other night. He whispered in her ear "I want you" and she whispers back a weak "no." Many nights were like this, Hera seeing a new lover with he husband in the mirror and thinking of her relationship with her unfaithful husband. Zeus would soon come to her, and they would soon go back to fighting over her jealousy and his scandalous behavior. Hera took time to plan all his lover's punishments but each was done less and less without much effort. It seemed her mind adapted to revenge easily and she could think of evil things quite quickly. He had lovers continuously like it has been written before. Even when they were losing the people of Greece, Zeus went to different women. His ways were worse than before. To deal with the stress of losing the people of Greece, he now did his weekly affairs done daily. A new woman each night and Hera left in a spacious chamber with no one. Zeus still called for her but would soon leave to take care of matters then find another maiden. There was no end to this cycle of affairs and one night passions: until the last believer of the Greek Gods died. Zeus tried to effect the human's beliefs and tried to stop the inevitable of fate. Zeus threatened the sisters of fate but they did not relent. Zeus tried to make them see that if the humans stopped worshipping them, they would not acknowledge the sisters as well. The sisters told the angered king that they did not need to depend on the prayers of humans that their work still went on. They only told Zeus that they would rise again, but until then, the Olympians would not rule like they once did. Zeus left the fates and let his anger out on the world below. All the Gods looked upon their King as he shot thunder down at the world that would soon forget them. He did this for fifteen nights and every God and Goddess tried to ease him. It was Athena who stopped her father's rant like everyone knew she would be. The night before Mount Olympus stayed dormant until the Romans, Zeus came to Hera. The Gods never knew when their time of rule would end so Hera knew that this did not mean anything to Zeus. That today he only came to her because he craved her body this night. It was the after Zeus tightly held Hera's waist to fit his body that she faced away from him. With one look up to the sky and a tear down her cheek, Hera wished for this to end.