There was a time in my life when my self assured confidence was all I needed. I thought that my life was perfect. I had everything the way I wanted it; go to school, come home, eat dinner with grandma. But it wasn't until much later that I realized that there was much more to life than my eight year old brain could comprehend.
Oh how wrong I was.
My entire childhood Grandma was a bit odd. She had been forty two when I was born, but as I grew up she remained as she always had. She never changed. She was always ethereally, eternally beautiful.
She also had this other weird quirk. She tended to relate things in real life to Greek Mythology. She taught me all about the ancient myths when I was growing up. She told the real story of Hercules, about how he'd been cruel to Lady Artemis, and she told me of the adventures of Lady Artemis and her hunt. She taught me about monsters, and most of all she taught me about the gods of ancient Greek Mythology.
Grandma was kind of obsessed with the gods. We even gave food offerings to them. The weirdest thing though was that whenever she gave her offering she said "For Aphrodite." I remembered that when she taught me to give my burnt offerings to the gods she always instructed me to say "For the Gods."
"Grandma," I asked. "Why do you say your offering is for Lady Aphrodite?"
Grandma looked at me with critical eyes for a moment. She signed and her entire body language shifted. "The children of God's are always supposed to honor their parent Darlin'."
I blinked rapidly as my eight year old mind made the jump from what she said, to what she was trying to convey to me. "You're a child of Aphrodite?" I asked.
"Yes child, that is exactly it. I knew you were a smart one," she smiled and reached a hand out to ruffle my hair.
"So that makes me a partial demigod?" I asked.
"Oh no child, you're much more than that. Your mother's father was Lord Zeus, and your father was a god as well. So you're about 7/8 god, and about 1/8 mortal. You're a Quasi goddess."
"What does that mean?" I looked at her, puzzled.
"The word quasi means 'almost, but not quite' and of course you know what a goddess is." She smiled and laughed at her own joke.
"Well who is my father?" I asked her.
"Only your mother knew that, and she never told me." She replied sadly. "However, I do have some idea. You're Godly parent has to be male, obviously. So that eliminates about half. Then you're physical characteristics are unlike both Zeus and Aphrodite, so they must've come from your father. That also rules out quite a few."
"So who is left?" I asked her.
"Well judging from the weapons that keep showing up, I'd almost have to say it was Ares, but you are nothing not hotheaded or particularly skillful in battle. Let's list your characteristics and see what we can find shall we?" Grandma walked to the shelf on the wall and pulled down a thick, dust covered volume.
"I have blonde hair, blue eyes, and abnormally pale skin." I offered. She just hummed her approval and looked up at me from her place in the chair and her violet eyes signaled for me to go on.
"I like to read, write, sing and dance. I like running in the forest and shooting my bow that I got for my birthday. I like learning about ancient culture, and I like to make friends." I looked at my grandmother's face carefully as she scanned the volume and I watched her eyes settle on a place on the page. Her expression froze.
"By Zeus, I think I've got it!" Her finger traced the words on the page before she began to speak. "Lord Apollo. He has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. His symbols include the Lyre, laurel wreath, python, raven, bow and arrows. He is a skilled archer, and musician." She finished reading the book and looked up at me.
"Honey, we're going to have to go somewhere." She said to me.
"Where Grandma?" I asked.
"No time darling. Let me call a cab." She said as she left the room. I stayed alone in the darkness of the library, as I waited for her I said a quick prayer to the Gods, but mostly to Apollo.
"Please let this work out, I just need things to be all right. Apollo don't leave me like Mom did." I felt the tears building up behind my eyes, but none escaped, because Trombley's never cry.
"Come on honey, we have to get our things together." She called down the hallway. I followed her voice and she handed me a duffle bag. "Minimize your bow and quiver. Bring extra arrows, and arm yourself with those daggers I bought you." I nodded my head as I took the bag and went to pack.
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I couldn't for the life of me understand why Grandma had the cab bring us the the Empire State building. "Hurry," she whispered.
"I am." I whined.
"Unsheathe one of your daggers, but keep it hidden," she ordered.
I immediately did what she said. I held a bronze dagger against my forearm, this effectively kept it out of sight of any passerby's. Grandma walked directly up to the guard and demanded a security pass for the 600th floor. The guard looked up from his magazine and says "there is no such floor ma'am, I suggest you leave."
"Carina." She said as she gestured to the man.
"Unless you want a dagger somewhere you'd rather it not be, hand over the pass." I said menacingly as I raised my dagger in a basic attack stance.
"Okay kid, give my regards to your Dad." He replied.
"What?" I looked at him quizzically.
"You act just like Ares." He replied.
"I'm a quasi goddess you idiot." I said dryly. The shock on the guards face had to be one of the most hilarious things I'd seen in my very short life.
"Was that really necessary?" She asked me.
"Yep." I replied simply.
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As we reached the top floor both of our clothes changed to old grecian clothing (A/N: I was too lazy to look up the official name, so that'll have to do.) Mine was a shimmering blue that matched my eyes perfectly, and Grandma's was an olive green tone.
She led the way down the streets as people stopped to stare at us. I wasn't able to catch what they were whispering about though. "Hurry child, we don't have much time!" She said urgently.
"Lord Zeus!" She yelled as she barreled through the oversized golden doors that seemed to lead to the thrown room. Zeus had lightening bolts in his hands ready to fire at the intruder until he saw who it was.
"Ana?" He said at the same time as Aphrodite did. They looked at each other then they looked at her confused. "How do you know her?" Zeus asked Aphrodite.
"She's my daughter." Aphrodite responded.
"B-But you're mortal." He stammered, and looked confusedly at me.
"Who is this?" He asked her.
"The daughter of our daughter." She told him, "I'm hoping to find out who her godly parent is."
"My Lord." Hera appeared behind Zeus "I can determine the child's parentage." She gave an odd sort of angry smile.
"By all means." He waved her forward.
"N-no!" I cried out as my body was wracked in this awful pain. All at once my hearing went fuzzy, I fell to my knees, and a series of pictures that looked oddly like a silent move reel played before my eyes. The first was Hera laying her hand on my head, announcing my father, and then killing my grandmother. The second was the Wrath of Aphrodite for the unjust murder of her daughter. "Stop!" I screamed, "It hurts! Make it stop!"
The man with golden hair and eyes like mine rushed forward to my side. "Where does it hurt?" He asked. He'd been sitting with the throne that had a sun on it. It must me Apollo.
"Ahhhh! It hurts." I screamed again as I curled into a ball and clutched my aching head.
My mouth opened and words began to spill out of their own accord; "In a time of war a goddess will rise up. Five will go on a quest, but three will return. They will be celebrated as heroes, while someone they trust plots their final demise." My mouth closed and the last thing I saw was my father's alarmed face as everything faded to black.
