Author's Note: The product of a late night Austin Powers marathon, college applications, and the urge to write something angsty. Forgive me if it sucks too much. Though it's probably not too bad, I can't tell write now. The things an overdose of Pepsi will do. R&R loves.
***************
They scream now.
Loud wails fill the air, mingling with the smoke rising from the burning buildings, smoke that fills their lungs and chokes them. Smoke that blinds them so they cannot see; they trip and stumble, helpless, making them easier prey than they already are. Smoke, ash, dust, rubble; by the end of it all, these will be the remains of their great city.
They burn.
The scent does not reach Olympus, where I stand, watching quietly.
But that does not mean I cannot smell the stench. Burning bodies, flaming mortals, lives extinguished, just like that.
It is rancid. Churns my stomach. Make me sick to my very core; sick and disgusted at this war, at myself.
They cry for help.
Loxias, Pythios, Culicarius, save us! God of the Sun, have mercy!
I wish I could. I wish I could show it. By Gaea herself, I do.
But she stops me. She who rejected me when she a mere girl, with defiant eyes and a head held high and proud. She whom I cursed. She who dared love another.
She stands there in the middle of the chaos, the butchery, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders, swaying slightly. Her lips are moving, whispering a chant, the words tumbling out.
It is not me she prays to. Zeus, Athena, Artemis, Poseidon, even Ares. But not me.
Never me.
They are silent now.
Silence, except for a few dry gasps and sobs that break it. The Greeks have taken all they could carry.
Troy is an empty shell.
Years later, I would wonder why I didn't just shove my pride away and save the city I was patron of. They did not deserve their fate. They were victims, innocent victims. The real culprit fled before the flames could touch her.
It is the bitter truth after all. Hundreds will pay for the sins of one.
And to this day, I still wonder, who was the true sinner amongst us all?
