12th Pisces 154,079

"It's normal to get cold feet, right?" I asked Hestia. "Even if you're having a normal wedding where you actually love the guy, you still kind of wonder if you're doing the right thing. So it's totally normal that I'm just… that much more… uncertain."

Hestia smiled at me patiently. "It's very normal. Here, I want to tie a sash under your belly to see if it looks better." I stood up and let her adjust it. We both peered at the full length mirror. The sash made me look even more pregnant.

"I think it's a no," I said.

"Yes, but I want something to make you look a little sexier. It's your wedding day!"

"And I'm not having sex with the groom, so what difference does it make?" I helped myself to another honey roasted peanut. Someone had left a can in the dressing room.

"Hera, I just did your lipstick." Hestia sounded frustrated.

"I don't care how I look. I don't care about this wedding," I said kindly. "It's just a political alliance. It's an excuse to wear a pretty dress and have flowers everywhere."

She handed me my bouquet. "Speaking of flowers, I think you're ready to go."

"Thanks for making me look beautiful." I smiled.

"You always look beautiful," she said affectionately. She grabbed her own bouquet and made a portal to the bottom of the garden. The groomsmen and bridesmaids were lined up. We exchanged greetings and someone cued the orchestra to begin playing a stately tune. The first two pairs went down the aisle.

"You look divine," Prometheus told me, grabbing Hestia's hand and leading her into the garden. Leto attempted to say something fake nice to me, but I preferred to ignore her existence so I immediately forgot what it was. Poseidon took her away from me before I could tell her to crawl under a rock and stay there. Which just left me, at the bottom of the aisle.

I took a deep breath and moved forward. The entire godhood was assembled, so I had to walk past four hundred worried looking faces to get to the dais. They were all friends with Zeus or me, and they were concerned whether we were doing the right thing. I smiled at everyone reassuringly. Ironically, I was getting married because I was concerned for them. There was a lot of love in the air, but none of it was between the two people getting hitched. Finally the interminable walk ended. Zeus and I faced each other with trepidation.

Clotho began the ceremony with her usual amount of pompousness. I tuned her out and tried to figure out what Zeus's O face would look like. He seemed like the type who would wrinkle his nose. I had no idea what Zeus was thinking about, but he was staring at my breasts. They were actually a decent size when swollen with milk. Ordinarily people did not find much about my breasts to keep them occupied, but hey, my husband liked them. My first husband. I was about to have a new husband. Apparently the new guy liked my breasts as well.

I paid attention when the vows started. "Do you vow to use this union to lead gods and mortals to a happy and peaceful future?"

"I do," said Zeus. He and the three Fates looked at me expectantly.

Some small part of my brain was saying, 'this is a bad idea'. Oh, well. What did I have to lose? It's not like I had anything I wanted to do with my life since I lost my husband and children. Either this was a mistake, and I could add it to the list, or it would be good for everyone and I would win the unofficial popularity contest known as politics.

"I do," I echoed.

"Then I now pronounce you husband and wife, and king and queen of the gods." Clotho breathed out in relief. Her sisters glanced at each other smugly. At least the Fates were happy about this marriage.

If Zeus and I were a typical couple, we would have had a dainty kiss and made stupid googly eyes at each other. I was not kissing Zeus. He reached out and took my hand. I lifted our hands to elbow height to make an attractive silhouette, but Zeus kept pulling until our arms were raised aloft. We looked like we'd just won a sports championship more than anything else. And hey, maybe in a way we had. Marriage was definitely a competition.

Applause thundered in our ears as we walked back down the aisle and were pelted by flower petals. They got stuck in my hair. One went down my dress. That was going to itch. If that had happened at my first wedding, my husband and I would have found a private room so he could remove the petal with his teeth. I couldn't really see Zeus trying to rip someone's clothes off. He was full of grace and good manners. I'd probably done wilder things with his first wife than he had, and I only slept with her once.

We got into position for the receiving line and exchanged greetings with our four hundred guests. I was flattered by how well they were able to mask their skepticism and profess their best wishes.

After we shook hands with everyone (which took fricking forever) we went through a portal to the massive dining room in Olympus. Zeus and I walked to the head table. This was the first of many dinners where we would be sitting together in the cold stone dining hall of Olympus.

Olympus was not a comfortable place. The last palace of the gods, in Hemeran, was white and gold and glittered like a jewel. Olympus, on the other hand, was entirely grey. Everything was cloudy marble. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, the never ending parade of fluted columns. There were no rugs, no curtains, only a few hard blue cushions on chairs and benches. I shuddered.

"Is something the matter?" Zeus asked me.

"No, I just got a bit of a chill."

"I can have the servants put the heating up a bit." He started to raise a finger to call someone.

I waved it off. "No, it's fine. This room is massive. Do you get many people for daily dinners?"

"Everyone who lives here in Aetherix, and some from other lands. I'm surprised you never had public dinners in Hesperix."

"I like eating with friends. And there have always been two cities with public dinners, so I didn't want to add a third." Since the original city of the gods had been destroyed in the Titan war, Zeus began hosting dinners in his palace. I glanced around at the hall, which was less than half full. We had all built our group areas with room to grow. "It must be awfully empty for breakfast and lunch."

"We have breakfast and lunch in the dining room upstairs. It's smaller."

"That's right, I forgot. It will take me a few weeks to get settled in."

"I did invite you to move in before the wedding." Zeus sounded slightly annoyed.

"I know. But it took so much time to get my rooms ready, I figured I may as well wait for two months until it was official." That sounded vaguely believable. The truth was I had put off moving in here as long as possible. I was still sulking that I had to move into Zeus's pretentious palace instead of building a house in my lands for us. But the Fates were adamant that I move so Olympus could become the new host for ceremonies. Visions of the future, good of the godhood, so of course I acceded. To be fair, more gods lived in Aetherix and on Olympus itself than lived in Hesperix. And Zeus already had the facilities to be the center of the godhood. Hesperix had theaters and arenas but no large dining hall.

Zeus frowned. "I just thought it would be nice if you could spend more time getting to know Athena before you give birth to Hephaestus."

"I have ten months before my due date. It's not like she's capable of an interactive bonding experience." I realized how harsh I sounded when Zeus flinched, so I attempted to make peace. "Look, I plan on spending a few hours every day with her. We'll be in great shape by the time I give birth, and then I'll be in the nursery with both of them. When is the best time of day to check on her?"

"I'm not sure. She spends most of the day napping, but isn't very good about sleeping through the night." He seemed a bit ashamed by this, as though it was a failing on her part.

I smiled. "She's sixteen months old, she's a newborn. The first two hundred years are pretty haywire. I remember when…"

Zeus interrupted me. "We've made a pledge to move on from the past. We don't discuss it on Olympus."

"Right," I said, reigning in the urge to roll my eyes. "It's going to take me some time to get used to that." Pretending like things didn't happen wasn't high on my to do list.

"It will become quite natural for you very soon."

I doubted that, but I had to respect his wishes. I made the rules in Hesperix, but I was in the land of Aetherix now. My entrée came so I was spared a response. I stared at the meal for a moment before flagging down the servant. "I'm a vegetarian. There should be another meal for us." He apologized profusely and went off to get it.

"I apologize," Zeus said. "It won't happen again." I felt acutely bad for whichever servants were going to hear his displeasure.

"It's not a big deal," I said quickly. "This is their first ceremony." I glanced over to where my brothers and sisters were sitting and found them without plates as well. I couldn't see where the Furies were seated, so I didn't know if their meals were correct. Zeus had taken great care assigning everyone seats in Olympus, and like the last palace, the Monsters were at the back. That was another reason I never had public dinners in Hesperix. I wasn't much of an assigned seat kind of girl, and seating yourself among that many tables was a nightmare.

My corrected meal came a minute later. It was pasta with broccoli and peas mixed in. Great. I was firmly of the opinion that broccoli should be accompanied by cheese, and peas were my least favorite vegetable. I thought of the tofu curry I'd had the night before and narrowly avoided a melodramatic sigh. On the upside, I was the mistress of the palace now. I could talk to the cook about menu choices.

Thirty minutes later dinner was over and we herded into the ballroom for a group dance. I had a hard time of it being so far along, but I did my best. There was a group dance for every celebration, and tradition was very important on Chaea. Whatever. I had learned to accept the daily tedium and only rebel when it was something important.

Zeus asked me to dance the first partner dance. It wasn't a strenuous dance, so I accepted. I remembered vividly the first time I ever danced with Zeus. He was aloof. Not as aloof as Phantasus (no one was as aloof as Phantasus), but Zeus was always more polite than friendly. Of course, I couldn't remind Zeus of that night nearly 50,000 years ago. He'd already given me his spiel about living in the present once tonight.

Once we were done bowing and thanking each other I fled the dancefloor. Even when I wasn't pregnant I was an average dancer. Zeus danced every night, and his movements were nearly perfect. He soon found a partner as practiced and graceful as he was.

"Hera!"

I turned around to see Poseidon, Hestia and Hades trailing after me.

"Hey, guys." I smiled at my brothers and eldest sister.

"You look gorgeous today," Pos said

"I look bloated." I'm sure some people looked sexy while pregnant. I was not one of them.

Poseidon winked. "It's a good look for you. It really brings out your eyes."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically.

Hestia glanced around the room. "We should get Demeter and have a nice family moment."

I snorted. "She's still angry Zeus married me instead of her best friend Leto. She probably wishes I'd choke on a peanut. Oh, do you think you could get the peanuts out of my dressing room?" I asked a servant who was apparently following me around. I turned back to my family. "They were really good. Honey roasted."

"I don't know how anyone can eat as much as you do," said Pos. I gestured to my belly. He lifted an eyebrow. "You eat that much when you're not pregnant."

I grimaced at him.

Hestia suppressed laughter. "I know you're not talking to Demeter now, but I hope you'll let her spend time with Hephaestus once he's born. With his father away, he needs all the family he can get. Hephaestus probably won't meet his father until after Tartarus opens."

Tartaros had put enough of himself into his prison world that he was tied to it magically. He had known when my brothers and sisters and I were thrown in. He had known the day the six of us escaped. But it wasn't until the activity of the final battle of the Titan war, when nine people were thrown in, that he bothered getting time off from his job in the Commonwealth and borrowing a ship for the six month trip out here to the edge of explored space.

I snorted. "If Tartaros ever comes to this planet again, I'm going to kill him."

Hestia gave me a look that implied I wouldn't be killing anyone.

"It would be justice for Metis," I said. Technically Metis died giving birth to Athena, but gods don't die of natural causes. She was cursed. I knew the most magic, so I was the one the Fates asked to examine Metis's body to see who had cursed her. Discovering the father of my baby was a murderer ranked up there with the worst moments of my life.

"He is going to come back eventually, and you're not going to kill him, because we need him," Hestia said firmly.

I lifted my eyebrows. "Fine. He's going to come back and Zeus is going to kill him."

"No one is going to kill him. You're being melodramatic." She looked like she was about to roll her eyes, and Hestia was normally a very patient person.

"I'm pregnant. I'm allowed to be melodramatic. In fact, I think it's encouraged in the instruction manual."

Hestia gave in and rolled her eyes expressively. I readied myself for a snide comment.

"Don't fight," begged Hades. He had done his duty and fought during the Titan war, but since then he avoided all conflict. He sighed morosely. "It's not the same without Epi here. We never fought when he was around."

Epimetheus became our adopted brother when he was thrown into Tartarus as a baby. We knew he had different parents, but we thought of him as our brother. By some miracle Hestia, Poseidon, Demeter, Hades, Epi and I had escaped as adults. Well, it was a miracle precipitated by my mimic powers. But why the five of them got out and our friends born in Tartarus didn't was a complete mystery to me.

At any rate, Epi had been thrown back into Tartarus during the Titan war. I missed him every single day. I felt like I was not as good of a person without him around. Hades missed him even more. They were best friends, and Epimetheus was always there to cheer Hades up.

"Epi wouldn't want us to be unhappy," Hestia said. "We need to stay positive."

"We really should be videotaping this wedding so that when he gets out he'll be able to laugh at it." Pos grinned.

"I don't want this moment saved for posterity," I said grumpily.

"I don't blame you. You remind me a bit of a lamb being prepped for slaughter," Poseidon said. "I hope the sacrifice appeases the Fates."

"I'm not doing this for those frigid bitches," I huffed. "I'm doing this so your ungrateful ass doesn't have to go to war again."

Hades put a hand on Poseidon's shoulder. "Don't fight."

Poseidon looked at Hades and nodded. He turned to me. "Speaking of videos, take lots of Hephaestus. Epi will want to see his nephew grow up. Poor Epi, wasn't he supposed to be godfather of your next child?"

"Heph already has an absent father, he doesn't need a missing godfather, too." I shrugged. "Besides, it was a bit cheeky of him to ask to be godfather when Hades is older. It's Hades's turn." Hades smiled at me. He was going to be a great godfather. He may not want to raise Hephaestus, but he would definitely spoil the child. "Anyway, I'm sure when my husband gets out of Tartarus he'll harass me about having another kid. Epi can be a godfather then."

My family laughed. They all remembered the days I said I was never having one kid, let alone three of them. Unfortunately, two were in Tartarus with my first husband. I would just have Hephaestus now. Actually, that wasn't true. I would have Athena as well. I hoped my stepdaughter would be a good kid. I needed some good in my life.