Hephaistos

Author's note about some of the characters
¤ Arelis, little brother of Aeolus, is my own invention. Phaeton is a demigod in the myths but a full blood immortal in my story. And Ixion is also a mortal but becomes a god in my story
¤ Freya is a goddess from the Norse pantheon

Thanks to Harajuku Girl, Lady Fael and lady knight keladry for feedback. And yes, Lady Fael I know well the sad story about Zeus and his former beloved Metis, but I consider that one being allegoric if anything + it wouldn't fit in a semi-realistic interpretation like this.

The summer of 66 became interesting and terrific! I had Hephaistos as my apprentice, he was intelligent, engaged and willing to learn. Then I spent much more time with both friends and family, did incognito beach trips and went holidaying on Crete, not far away from where dad had grown up. Amazingly I had never seen the place before. A tiny village among the mountains, getting most of its income from the tourists wanting to see the birthplace of Zeus. All right, it had become a tacky amusement park, but I guess that was only to expect.

In the end of Highsummer Month I felt different. Liberated. And I fell in love for real for the first time in my life. With that Attic god Aganthanon. It was wonderful. First.

Then it started to become complicated, the way I had always feared love would be. Agy demanded more and more of my time and my attention and he was really irritated when I brought Hephaistos to Alfapolis.
- But he's here to learn. And he won't bother us.
- But I can't stand him staring at us. I can't stand his ugly face and the way he sneaks up from behind all the time.
- He's not ugly and he's not sneaking!
- One can get the impression that he's your kid, the way you always drag him around and defend him.
- He's my little brother for Faith's sake!

- But isn't there anyone else to take care of him? His mother and father? No, sorry, I forgot, they are Important Gods. The Divine King and the Nexus Chair Lady. Of course they won't deal with a little ugly boy. I'm only surprised that they didn't throw him off the Olympos to start with.
- Agy!

We fought, and then he told me that he had cheated on me with Nike. And I believed him! I was also more angered with Nike than with Agy to be honest. Nike had to take some undeserved raging before I unserstood that Agy had been lying about it. It took so much unnecessary time and energy to straighten it out. So when that was done our love was dead and Aganthanon had become a nuisance in my life instead. Especially when he wanted to patch it all up again and start over. I was stupid enough to give him a second chance around Dark Month. It only led to another fight about poor Hephaistos, very similar to the first one.

When Hera left the Chair Lady's office in the year 67 Artemis had taken over. But it has not been easy for my sister to reach the position, on the contrary. There had been some changes in the Constitution since Hera was elected, and these days the Chair Lady was chosen by a general election instead of being appointed by the Nexus. Artemis had to defeat Pasithea, daughter of Xenon of Thessalia-Ekarantanni, the Argospantheon goddess Goladia and the Hyperpantheon delegates Iryadan of Garondas and Eridanus of Akarnaiya.

I would be lying if I said that Artemis didn't benefit from being Olympian, but the race was hard anyway, and in the end I believe she won by being her honest, straightforward and uncomplicated self. And by knowing how the Office worked of course. Hera had been a good teacher.

After her resignation my stepmum sided with Oreynadan and Demeter as dads helper. Iris, who had been working for Hera the last decades, came along. So dad got some more spare time and could actually be seen relaxing now and then up home. He and I took up playing square-board again, just like when I was a little girl, and he danced with Hera to Apollon's music or partook in all our endless late-night discussions about every pointless subject there were. Philosophy! Never done until the wee hours with Iris and Ares sleeping in their couches while people like Artemis, Auroanos, Hermes and yours truly went on unbothered by the flying time.

Regardless of my problems with Aganthanon and some usual fuzz between members of my family, life went on in a rather smooth track the coming years. It might even have been boring if I hadn't had Hephaistos to teach and look after. He was full of ideas and little tricks and challenged me constantly with his creativity. Together we toyed with cameras and developed the motion pictures. First in black and white and then in colour. Then with sound added!

Our first actors were our pantheon of course. We had Apollon playing guitar, Artemis teaching little Persephone archery, Oreynadan and Iris fencing, Aphrodite kissing Auroanos (sneaky one that), Ares fighting with Irdonan, Zephyros and Hermes throwing Helios in the Silver Coin lake, dad showing off with thunderbolts (that one got overexposed), Eos turning 90 and Hestia lighting the New Year Bonfire (and Demeter's gown). To mention a few things.

Then there was Astraios. It seemed like the protector of Thessalia could smell our camera. He was the real lens louse, appearing in almost every picture we had. Either he was the main starring character, making drinks, somersaulting in the staircase hall, performimg magic stunts or cracking jokes. Or he kept popping up behind other people, making faces and dropping one-liners.

In the end I couldn't help wondering why he was acting the way he did.
- Because it's fun of course! the Thessalian protector smiled. I was beginning to get bored with things around, and along come Athi and Heph with their new amazing toy. I have never seen myself from the outside in this raw and realistic way. When you're memorysighting, there's always some polishing going on. And since I'm not that good at these things I don't do them often.

- We better name these films "The adventures of Astraios, featuring the rest of Olympos", Hephaistos suggested.
We presented the films on white screens and it almost felt like farseeing, only that the quality of the pictures were not as good and you had no control over them, because they were already "made". Anyway - the Olympians loved the novelty of seeing themselves in a new way.

The first official film presentation was much more plain and pale. Moving cars, crashing waves and crowding people at the Ekarantanni Central Station. And hoards of mortals in ecstasy over dads appearance in Olympia south of Xanetakar. The motion pictures became a success anyway and my name was suddenly up there with the most renowned deities. Not because of being Zeus's daughter but because of being an inventor. People were starting to remember Athena!

Hephaistos' friend Arelis (little brother of Aeolus by the way) took interest in our aeroplanes, and he helped us developing better communication systems for the planes, including aircraft controllers operating from the airports with guiding the planes up and down. Naturally he became the God of Airports.

I liked Arelis from the start. Just like his older brother he's open and fair and with a laid back outlook on life. A bit of a booster though, and always enhancing his own importance in things. He became the one who had to clear up the mess when that conceited mortal engineer Arachne changed things in my blueprints. Arachne had though she was making improvements when she was actually endangering both passengers and people on the ground by making the planes less stable. All right, the planes got better manoeuvring capability, but it was on the cost of security, and faith knows how it could have ended.

Luckily Arelis spotted the errors before the planes in question left the manufacturing floor, sought me out and got my original blueprints, and no doubt saved us a lot of trouble, and possibly lives as well.

Another god involved was Helios' son Phaeton. He was a pilot and a very skilled one, and he liked to test the planes beyond their capacity from time to time. One day he crashed in a most spectacular way, setting farmlands and a forest on fire, killing several dozen unfortunate mortals. That event was something he had to live with for the nearest decades, Phaeton the crash-pilot. Dad wanted to kill his pilot career, but I insisted that he was to continue flying explaining that the fault had been with the plane instead of the pilot.

Hera and dad had another child. Little Alatheia arrived the year I turned 63, a cute little girl with oddly blond hair for being Hera's. She seemed to be the real proof that dad and Hera's relationship had taken a new start after Hera's retirement from the Chair Office. Perhaps dad could even decide upon staying faithful to his wife. Then we other Olympians wouldn't have to worry so much about these two.

And Poseidon got married! He found a goddess of his own kind, Amphitrite. She was daughter of Nereus, the old man of the sea, a god more than 1700 years old! But she had been hard to get. Dads chase of Hera seems like a walk in the park compared to all the hassle old sea-god went through to be able to get Amphie to the Mayor's office.

Hestia and Helios had the son Aietes and Aphrodite's and Irdonan's daughter Harmonia left Olympos to marry the Atlantean god Gerathian. That marriage only lasted a decade, but Harmonia didn't return to Olympos until centuries later. She ended up taking lovers among mortals and having mortal kids whom she left with the men. Then Sakura brought me the next bomb:
- Iris and Zephyros!
- But I thought she and Ares...
- That was only sex apparently.

¤-¤-¤

Hephaistos invented the first helicopter, by placing the propeller on top of the plane instead of upon the wing. And making it really big. A stabilising propeller upon the tail fin, spinning in the opposite direction and the thing was flying. First it was ridiculed, but that didn't stop Hephaistos. He was used to hear harsh words.

- An ugly plane from the ugly Olympian, said the politician Protheus of Egarnathon.
- Ugly perhaps, my brother answered him, but watch it fly! Watch it stop dead in the air or land and take off vertically! That's the beauty of the Helicopter.
- I'm only hearing the noise, and watching that big propeller on top of it. It'll create havoc with its turbulence, Protheus retorted.
- But I believe in it, someone said. That was the Theban god Ixion. Until then he was mostly known for getting laid by Hera who had used him to get back at Dad for his affair with Othreisa.
- You want to fly it then? Hephaistos turned to the older god.
- Yes, certainly!

- Deal! The men shook hands and a couple of days later Ixion was behind the controls of this new kind of flying machine. Before the eyes of almost every immortal in the Ekarantanni area he took off from the little island Itos and drove out over the sea, the sun reflecting off the red, insect-like vessel. People were cheering and applauding and I was looking proudly at my little brother and then at Hera who was standing behind her son, smiling.

Of course dad hadn't been that found of Ixion bedding his wife and now he got back on the Theban in a most childish way, by tampering with the winds over the sea, causing Hephaistos' helicopter to loose height rapidly and then being thrown into the mountain Ossa, exploding in a ball of fire. It was just pure luck that no-one got harmed.
- Farting Chaos! I heard my cousin Persephone exclaim somewhere behind me, and Demeter lecturing her to mind her language. Hephaistos was looking with terror in his eyes at his lost flying machine.
- My... Bumblebee... He was actually teary-eyed. And I was in consternation. How could any of these things have happened?
- I told you so, I could hear Protheus of Egarnathon behind me, and some other immortals laughing. But Hera knew exactly what had happened.
- Zeus! she raged and then went over to the place where dad sat together with Zephyros, Iris, Helios, Leto and a few others.

Meanwhile a group had gone to Ossa to see how poor Ixion was doing, and after a while Apollon returned with the Theban pilot. The latter was injured of course and Apollon was healing his burns. But it was the chock that was the real problem.
- Burning wheels! Ixion was babbling. I was tied to that burning wheel, spinning aimlessly through heaven.
- What is he raving about? Eleithya asked.
- The propeller, no doubt, Hephaistos said. He must have had some vision of it caching fire - or perhaps a solar reflex before it crashed. Can you heal him, Ollie? I'd hate to be responsible for that man loosing his mind.
- He's soon going to be OK again, our older brother assured us. Apollon had put down Ixion on a bench, folding up his own toga as a pillow for his patient. My brother was almost naked, wearing only a kilt, and I could see some younger goddesses giving him looks. One of them, Melia, would go longer than just looks, but that's another story.

- You insult my brother you eat my knuckles, Protheus, I could hear Ares growl over the general hubbub, but I hardly looked around. My little brother had styled himself "The Champion of Olympos" and he thought taking to the fists was the general reply to every insult to his kins.

- Now what, Heph? Eleithya asked her brother.
- I'll have another helicopter made of course. This event is not going to stop me. On the contrary!
- Even Athena started off crashing, Phaeton pointed out. I guess it's mandatory, like an initiation rite.
- You got such a hang-up on rites, Phaeton, Astraea said. Why is that?
- I do? Phaeton rose an eye-brow at my sister.
- I guess it's because he spend so much time among the mortals, Eleithya commented.
- That's because they're so much more interesting than gods, Phaeton said and was met with several humphs.

- How are you going to get someone flying these things again. After this I mean? Aphrodite was asking Hephaistos meanwhile.
- I'll fly them myself if no-one else will.
- You really dare that? Aphrodite again.
- Certainly! Hephaistos met the looks of Aphrodite, probably noting the flash of admiration in Aphrodite's lavender eyes. Some freak winds are not going to stop me. Or the helicopter.

I was so proud of my brother when hearing those words. A couple of gods could still be heard mocking the helicopter, but Heph didn't care the slightest. Most people were leaving now and I heard Hera and Zeus fighting over the incident.

Ixion was starting to come around again, telling Apollon that he didn't remember what had happened between loosing control of the vehicle and waking up here among "all these Olympians" - meaning Hephaistos, Apollon, Phaeton, Aphrodite, Eleithya, Astraea, Hermes and me who were standing around him. Ixion's employer Xurasa and her friends Doradala and Freya had also arrived as well as the mandatory bunch of curious people. Apollon lost his temper and shooed us all away:

- Show is over! Now get the chaos out of here, let this youngster heal in peace!

The very next day Hephaistos was back at the drawing board, working on making the helicopter better fit for "freak winds". And while Ixion got well again I had a go at dad for spoiling his son's big event. Hephaistos did some more flying, this time with himself behind the steering stick, and not crashing a single time. Then, one evening, he invited me to discuss a manufacturing line for helicopters in the aeroplane plant. Helicopters for rescuing events and flying to and from places where aeroplanes were unfit. Like landing on Olympos.

I told him that I was planning on starting another plant, this time outside Alfapolis in Attica.
- That's where we going to build our helicopters, Heph. It will be a boast for Alfapolis too.
- Great! Hephaistos answered and we toasted to that in nectar in lack of other beverages.
- Athena by the way, Hephaistos said. My brother had picked something up from his desk.
- Yes?
- Wish me luck tonight, I'm going serious with the woman I love.

- Oh, have I missed something?
- Nah, I haven't really told anyone. And we've been discrete.
- Who is she?
- Aphrodite. I know what you're thinking, Athi, but she cares about me. She's the most wonderful person I've ever met, and she cares about me.
- She said that? That she cared?
- Yes.
- She said "I care"? Not "I love you"?
- I can make her change that. With my secret weapon I can. Then I'm not referring to my "thing". This is a special gift I made. Because I'm not going to loose this battle.
- Hephaistos! You really mean that?

- Yes, I love her. I'm going to give her this. Hephaistos showed me a golden, gem studded rose. It was one of the most marvellous works I've ever seen. Delicate and beautiful, it looked real and alive even though it was shining with gold, and the large diamond on the leaf looked just like a drop of dew.
- I'm going to ask her to marry me, my little brother went on.
- Good luck, honey! I went over and gave him a big hug.

Most of the bets were on a "no" from Aphrodite when Hephaistos proposed. None of us really knew anything more than that neither Aphrodite nor Hephaistos had been seen around very much after the event with the crashed helicopter. Still no-one had actually suspected that they had been spending time together. Most of us had presumed that Heph had been working and no-one had really bothered with Aphrodite being absent.
- I though she had a boy downtown, Sakura said. Like this Boreas of Sarention.

Aphrodite said "yes" nevertheless. I guess she was both surprised and flattered that someone was actually proposing instead of just expecting her to come to his bed. So later that year we had a wedding at Olympos. These events were rarer than one might think, showing mostly that we immortals don't really believe in "happily ever after". Seeing dad and Hera's ups and downs might discourage the most love-sick little deity.

But the newly-wed looked happy enough when they took off on their honey-moon - in a helicopter of course. And we were cheering and throwing rice and confetti after the vehicle.

¤-¤-¤

Hephaistos also had a passion for practical jokes. I remember when he made the Crazy Chair. It looked just like an ordinary iron chair of a kind that had been in vogue back then. But if someone sat down, he or she got stuck. Hera of all people became the Crazy Chair's first (and probably last) victim. She seated herself, cup of wine in her hand and busy talking to dad who was sitting in a normal chair next to the Crazy Chair. No-one seemed to notice anything peculiar until Hera tried to rise. She was stuck! And became quite frustrated, trying to free herself while we all went from surprised to giggling. Heph was collapsing with laughter in a corner, and Hermes, who was the first one to understand who the mastermind behind the Crazy Chair was, couldn't help telling upon him.

Now Hera was really mad, asking Heph to come over and free her, but he was laughing so hard that he couldn't even stand up. Even dad was laughing. Anyone else would probably have used brute force to just wreck the Crazy Chair. The problem was that my stepmum was wearing a designer dress from Aramakis. Handmade, signed and dedicated especially to her. Only one such item existing. Hera did definitely not want to ruin it, so she didn't dare to use force. So while I was busy drying tears of laughter from my eyes Hermes and Eleithya managed to have their younger brother standing up and come over to free his mum.

After a while Hera found it rather fun too. Bud she did get back on her son, poured some neon pink hair colouring essence into his shampoo. The best of all was that blond Aphrodite used that same shampoo before realising what was in it. Hephaistos and his wife ended up nicked "The pink couple" for quite some time, a nickname lasting longer than the actual hair colour.

At the same time things had started to happen in my Attic settlement. My second aeroplane factory in Alfapolis was attracting both engineers and blue-collar workers.