Olympia Lagunas

Penthesileia was a Queen of the Amazones who led her troops to the Trojan War in support of King Priamos. She was a daughter of Ares and Otrere
Kydoimos was the god of the din of battle, confusion, uproar and hubbub and a son of Ares and Eris
Polemos was the spirit of battle and a son of Ares
Androkles, Aristides and Lysandros are made up deities just for this story
Astrape was the goddess of lightning, with unknown lineage, so I felt it fitting to turn her into a Manhattan weather goddess married to Deimos
Pythagoras was never a god for real but 'became deificated' in a way like Julius Caesar, and some said he was a son of Zeus.

The Greeks called the air the gods lived in for the Aether, and thus I used that name for my divine dimension concept.

South America was hot, humid and bug infested. Going there and doing our thing was dangerous, tedious, demanding, tiring - and mighty fun. I became teamed up with Palioxis and Proioxis plus another dauther of Ares' - Penthesileia and then his sons Kydoimos, Polemos and Kyknos (Kick Nose). Then there were Hercules' son Androkles and Hephaestos' great-great grandson Lysandros, and it turned out to be a great team. Penthesileia, a 2800 years old amazon warrior, was intense and wild but clever and enjoyable as well. She was athletic, tanned and with burning hazel eyes and short, dark and curly hair. It was only when she smiled you could tell by the looks who she was related to. Needless anyway, she was as tough and unrelenting as her father. In a way she reminded me of Ellen Ripley of the Alien movies with her go-get'em attitude. Lysandros on the other hand was a laid back soul, blond, pale and cool. He was the team's tech guy, the one who took care of the weapons, the car, the GPS, the phones and all the other gears that needed to work in a modern war.

Kydoimos looked like a red haired Ares and like trouble incarnated, the kind of thug who created bar brawls just for the heck of it or if someone accidently pushed him on his way to his table. He was the one who knew everything and then some about mayhem, havoc and confusion. After all he was a master at creating it. On top of that you soon learned that he had his own shrewd cleverness and dark, wicked humour. Androkles, the team's medic was a bulky and silent man with long, raven hair and curious brown eyes. He was surprisingly agile for his size and often had his own ideas about how to solve difficulties. He was also good at holding back the gung-ho juggernauts Kydoimos and Kick Nose.

Polemos appeared to be the true role model for every stormtrooper commando soldier out there. Hard and inexorable, never stopping a second, but plowing ahead like a human tank and to Tartarus with consequences. But when you get to know him you found a die-hard fairnes, a low-keyed kindness and an endless well of knowledge regarding all and everything related to front line war, from hi-tech arms to wild land trekking. A well he gladly shared from when whe stopped and rested. Then there were the twins. Proioxis and Palioxis were lean and mean, I had learned to love their wicked humour and they had mighty fun when I was never able to tell them apart. And I - well I was the newbie on the team and had to live with that.

Together we were running and fighting through the jungle, killing Neotitans and sleeping in the wild. In a way it was like the games my brother and I had used to play as kids, only that this was real and thus much more intense. There were never any real all out fights with the South American Neotitans, mostly because the continent was large and filled with jungles, mountains, steppes and all kind of wilderness to hide in. Even glaciers! So what we engaged in was more like small skirmishes, and these tended to be repetitive after a while, floating into each other. In spite of everything there were only so many ways which you could intercept and destroy Titans. Or for them to try to get rid of us. There were car chases, parcour-like runs across ghost towns, sneaky shoot-outs in the jungle or among the mountains and snipers in strange places. I was getting better at fighting and we managed to stay alive all of us, which was better than what Deimos' theme did - they lost a guy names Valandor the first month. He was a son of Aphrodite - one of many, and I never knew him. Still it felt sad upon hearing it.

But even if the fights became dull after a while, there sure were some special memories I will always return to in my mind. It was that magnificent paradise valley in Argentina, the one with the deep blue lake and a thousands and thousands of exotic, colourful flowers and ditto butterflies. A colour explosion of the wildlife I'd never thought existed outside the world of the most creative painters. It was there we also saw wild parrots for real. A magnificent sight. Kyknos had been the first one to jump into that lake and we others had soon followed him. The water had been wonderful and refreshing after a hot trip and swimming and diving was so incredibly different when being immortal. You could stay down under water seemingly forever, holding your breath and recycling the oxygen over and over again. So I dived almos to the bottom of that lake, exploring the aquatic wildlife in a way I never thought possible, especially since my eye sight was not blurred by the water. It sure was every scuba diver's wet dream, and no worries about too fast ascents either, since my immortal body handled the pressure shifts like it wasn't any deal at all.

That evening when the sun set and painted the sky in magnificent hues, we sat outside the tent and talked about all and everything, from movies to the secrets of outer space. The Olympians knew there was life out there, they had met immortals from other races. Strange beings which they told me about. Beings which were neither like The Predator or E.T. but with their shared mix of goodness and badness, just as with us. And with completely different concepts to meassure bad or good with. But the universe was so waste and the civilizations so shattered across the stars that it might take millennia before it became a valid reason to interact for real. Thus the Council of Twelve had voted to keep this knowledge secret, because they did not believe that man was ready to handle it yet.

"It would be panic in the streets" Lysandros said. "I remember that US radio show - War of the Worlds - and the terror it caused. It was unbelievable. Men always assume the worst."
"Well they have a good reason to do so," Androkles pointed out. "In any case we guys try to make it damn sure that the worst is actually not going to happen."
"Oh, speak for yourself" Penthesileia returned. "I'd love to be done with all this and just take a long-long holiday by some beach resort. The day I'm walking unarmed again outside the Olympia Lagunas is a reason for celebration."
"And you're a daughter of Ares," I said, not really sure where I was getting with that comment.
"Yes I am. And I've seen wars on the inside as well as on the outside and from every view and position. From nuclear subs to planes faster than the speed of sound. From dirty trenches to neat headquarters. From burning desserts to frozen tundras. From the basics on horseback, man to man, sword to sword - to large, futuristic halls where you can kill millions by just pushing the button. Trust me, Aidra, after 2800 years you've seen it all. And you learn to resent it. And you learn that it might be necessary as well."
"I guess no one love peace as much as a real warrior," Kyknos filled in.
"Aww – peace is boring," Kydoimos protested half-heartedly, mimicking Homer Simpson.

"What's the aliens like?" I traced back in the subject line. "Are they peaceful? Or killers like in the movies."
"They're really very much like us. Fighting for peace." Penthesileia replied.
"And fucking for virginity," Androkles added. Penthesileia huffed and went on:
"Actually the race with the less numbers of armed conflicts - I wouldn't call them the most peaceful - was a race which was suppressed. All of them living under the boot of an immortal dictator god. They couldn't fight, they couldn't protest. All tries were futile. Those upstarts who once were had been around and tried anything had been beaten down brutally, and now these people were mostly catatonic, their lives forfeit."
"And you met gods from this race?" I felt it hard to believe.
"No, we did not. We heard about them from the Nephilims, a space faring race who are mostly watching over other civilizations to make sure they don't become too threatening."

"How do they regard us?"
"They tell us to get rid of the Titans. If that grouping takes over Earth and then acquire space flight, the Earthlings might be considered a threat. And they might ask the Eseraphimes to terminate us."
"Can't the Nephilims help us against the Titans instead?"
"They don't do colonialism," Palioxis said. "And fact is that in spite of their space flight they're not that equipped fighters. They're on level with Earth in the 11:th or 12:th century. Just discovered gunpowder. And they know next to nothing about strategy and tactics. The little they know they have learned from us to be true."
"They would probably screw up, become more a threat than an asset," Kydoimos pointed out while turning over the steaks which were being grilled on the campfire. He and Kyknos had hunted down a kind of dear and now it was becoming dinner together with some newly plucked fruits and parboiled rice. In spite of our discussion that tranquil and peaceful night the Titan War had felt like another world.

"However the extraterrestrials are far from the most interesting species there are," Proioxis said, and I turned to look at the dark-skinned goddess.
"How come?"
"Well, you know about the Titans," Palioxis said and her twin went on:
"They are not the only sentinent race sharing the human's living room on Earth. There are elves as well, however they try to keep to themselves, in so-called 'folded dimensions'. And then there are elementards and nature sprits."

"Elves?" my eyes darted to my beer-can and then back to the twins again.
"Yes, elves. They are mammals like us. Primates. Evolved even further from the apes than we did. Branched off from the Homo Sapiens string later. They traded in the human durability for magic traits. They are a lot easier to kill with metal weapons and have quite a weaker immune defence. Flues which sends the generic human to bed for a week or two may be lethal for an elve. Not to mention what certain drugs and poisons can do. So the Elves have more or less withdrawn from the beaten tracks of humanity and folded parts of the world to bring it out of reach."
"Folded, how?" I asked.
"That means they have created copies of parts of our world, and hidden in other dimensions, connected to Earth but not really on it in the normal sense," Penthesileia was explaining. "In the normal dimensions we can persieve using our normal senses that is."

When she saw I was still at lost, the Amazon admitted:
"I don't really grasp how it works either, however it works very much the same way as how the Aether is connected to our known universe."
"And yet it's a different kind of magic," Proioxis said. "You cannot really compare the two."
"And don't feel bad for not getting it," Palioxis added. "It's Nobel price brain material stuff. I'm not even sure Einstein grasped how it really works, although he tried. Really hard. I remember when he... Athena tried to explain. She had lost me and Pro long time ago, but that man was still trying."
"You mean Einstein met Athena?"
"Yes, where do you think he learned all the stuff," Penthesileia replied, and then we were back at gossip, a far more manageable area. At the same time I noted that Polemos had fallen asleep with his head resting on his backpack. That was another thing with these warriors. They could fall asleep like EVERYWHERE!That was still a trait I wanted to aquire."

The next day we had reached the Mayan ruins and I had walked in awe and a bit of a sadness, regarding those remnant of a civilization lost and gods who had been dead for almost a thousand years, killed by the first of the Titans. I wondered what it would take to save the rest of the world from going down the same way. Apparently it had been close several times in certain places, like in Europe during the medieval times. Penthesileia could tell me some horrid stories about that era.

I learned Spanish during my first weeks here and then Portuguese. I had no idea that it was so easy to acquire a second language as an immortal. No wonder all of my new friends spoke almost every language worth knowing and then some. I had just thought it being a case of having a lot of time on your hand. But, as Androkles had explained it, there were new channels in my brain open now, new, finer curls and winds among the old ones. Synapses and memory areas that made it easier to pick up new things, to learn and remember. For instance I could read a text once and then remember it almost by heart. Consequently the foreign words just had to be told once and then they were stuck in the brain.

However all wasn't perfect. Far from it. Ares' and my affair died down simply because we didn't get to see much of each other during these weeks. He and his group were way north of us, in countries like Equador, Colombia and northern Brazil. I missed him, at least in the beginning, missed his hugs and his kisses. I missed falling asleep next to his warm body and waking up the same way. Then again it was hard to tell if it really was him I missed or just someone to hold, if it was simply the dislike of loneliness that made me feel moody. After all I didn't feel heartbroken. Not like back when Dave had died. That difference in emotions wasn't simply caused by the reason that Ares was not gone. That I was going to see him again. Perhaps I had known it all the time, that Ares and I had no future together for real. He was the God of War. The ancient Olympian who was a member of the Council of Twelve. While I was a rookie goddess who hadn't even lived half the length of an average mortal lifespan. What could I offer him save for my body to still his hunger for flesh? No, Ares and I were history, I had to accept that and get on with my life. Then I would remember those nights we had shared like you remember a holiday at a resort. Something wonderful which inevitable comes to pass.

O0O0O

Then came Christmas, which the gods didn't care much about. Not only was that religion a non-issue for my new friends. On top of that, as Lysandros so eloquently pointed out, the man Yoshue - Jesus Christ had probably not even been born at that time of the year, but rather in late August or early September. The time for the celebration had been selected simply because it corresponded with the time for the solstice, which had been a pagan festivity for centuries before even the Jewish religion was shaped. Instead it was the solstice and the turn of the year we were planning to celebrate. So now we were heading for the Aether and Olympia Lagunas for a three days long celebration before we resumed our chase of the Neotitans. We in Ares' group had all the reason to celebrate and be proud since we had taken out most of the Titans on the South American continent. Al right, we had failed to locate Promaximus, the presumed leader of the American Titans, but as Ares said - there would be a day tomorrow as well. And a war to resume.

But now partying awaited us. I was over the top excited by the concept of finally going to Olympia Lagunas. Especially after the last weeks since my comrades in arms had talked a lot about the Lagunas. About the people there, about all the amazing things to see and fun things to do. The way they talked made it sound like a mix between a class reunion, amusement park visit and holiday trip. And I didn't have to worry about being left aside. I already knew this gang in and out now, after having lived so close together for such a long and intense period. That's one thing war does - bringing comrades of arms really tight together, creating bonds almost inseparable. Bonds knitted by death, blood, helping hands, worries, despair and relief. All those intense feelings war brought with it. No wonder that Zeus and his core group of gods had stayed together for millennia, they had been welded together in the first Titan War. A war which they had engaged in when they had been even younger than I was now.

So now we were going to their place. We had packed away our arms and returned to our respective homes for a few days. Me, the twins and Kyknos to New York, Kydoimos to Chicago and Penthesileia to Rio while Lysandros and Androkles went directly to Olympia Lagunas. When those days were over I met with the Manhattan Group again to go together with them through the Portal to the Aether. There were Hekate, Ares, Palioxis, Proioxis, Deimos, Kyknos, Phobos, Ishiro, Aristides, Xantos and Palaistra while Bia and Nerio had already gone ahead. And yet another new name, a New Yorker I hadn't met until now: Astrape, who was a weather goddess and the wife of Deimos. They had a daughter, Achelois, who was living at Olympia at the moment.

Astrape turned out to be a pleasant acquaintance. She was petite and as fair as Deimos was dark, with silver blond hair curling around a heart shaped face with milk-white skin and eyes the colour of old jeans, and dressed as if she still stood with one foot in the middle of the last century.
"I'm no warrior, far from it!" she confessed frankly. "So when Dei and the others go off warring I stay at home and take care of the Manhattan weather, making sure Central Park does not dry up during hot summers."
"So you're the one who bring in those odd rains?" I asked.
"That should be me, yeah." she smiled.
"You always used to soak me when I did my jogging runs."
"That helped wash away the sweat I take it!" she shot back and at that charming comment I couldn't help laughing.

Then there was Ares - he greeted me with a rather chaste hug.
"You look fabulous, Aidra. Strengthened and more sure of yourself. I'm delighted for your sake."
"Thanks, Ares," I smiled, and that had been it. That closeness from a few months back was gone like it had never been there. And I thought I missed it.

I have always loved New York for Christmas, and missing so much of it as I was going to do now felt really weird. But perhaps that would be my divine life from now on. I did take one quickie down the decorated Fifth Avenue, even if I didn't buy much, and I visited my parents and my brother with family who was in town for the holidays. There was the usual Christmas dinner with turkey on the table, a sparkling furnace in the fireplace and gossip fermenting the air. Now Arthur finally got to hear what had happened to me this fall. Not unexpectedly and just like mum and dad, he had hard to believe in it first and so had his young fiancée Isadora. Greek gods was for them a fairytale concept. And the Titan war something completely alien. So I had to prove my point by walking in the air and plucking out burning logs from the fireplace. This sort of scared Isadora, she looked at me as if I was a daemon who had stepped into the house. A monster or a freak, and I felt something knit in my stomach. Not for myself so much as for Arthur. My brother shouldn't have to suffer because of my fate. He didn't need his future wife to run scared out of the door, which I feared would happen if I didn't do this right. But what was right in this case? I sure didn't know. I would have to talk to Hekate or someone about it. Yet another problem brought trough by the clash of my two lives...

Nevertheless I had to push these worries behind me. Now I was going to Olympia Lagunas. Now I was going to celebrate. When I got home again I could give Arthur a call, make sure everything was all right between him and Isadora. And if not –and that was because of me - I promised myself I would find a way to fix it.

O0O0O

The concept of another dimension, which was not Earth, not somewhere else in the solar system or even in this universe was to me something strange, unbelievable. Like science fiction or fantasy, and in a way even more outlandish than living, breathing and walking mythological gods around us. The latter was something I had just got used to. Now, their existence didn't feel half as weird as the location of their home, the Aether and Olympia, being in another dimension. Yet that was where we were going now, leaving Earth and travelling further than even Einstein could have imagined. And to go to the Aether we were using this Portal, which was located on a tiny, disregarded and nameless island near Oak Island south of Brooklyn. An island owned completely by the Olympians.

That Portal didn't look the least like some Stargate circle but just like another door out from a garage-like building on an otherwise empty estate. Any mortals, I was told, who visited this island would just find this locked garage they were not able to open. A certain spell made sure that they were not overtaken by curiosity but sailed off again. When I passed through those doors in the back end of the building (doors which weren't there on the outside) I suddenly found myself in a wonderful park with a growth of such a lushness that I didn't think it was possible. A forest-like orchard filled with all kinds of flowers blossoming regardless of seasons. Rays of sunlight shot through whirling mists and when I looked up I saw a deep blue sky – covered in stars in spite of it obviously being daytime. This was the first sign that I was actually not at Earth anymore but somewhere else. In the Aether dimension.

Perplexed I stopped and turned around, the tattered, old garage doors had turned into a wonderful portico in ivy-covered and gilded marble, which doors Kydoimos was now closing since he was the last one in after Palaistra, sealing off the connection with Earth for the time being. Then I turned again and went after the rest, past a wonderful waterfall and ponds with fountains in, surrounded by statues. Then more waterfalls, smaller this time, no more than trickles to be true, gurgling down in tiny tarns surrounded by moss-covered stones. I became surprised of how wonderful the air smelled and how easy it felt to breath, while I walked with the rest down a path of snow white pebbles towards a clearing where the actual town was located. Beyond that town stretched a waste and seemingly endless ocean, the horizon barely visible beyond the mist – or was that clouds? However the most remarkable thing was what I saw when I looked up in the sky. It was the planet Earth hanging there, a bit more than 2/3 full and showing a continent which I recognized as an upside-down Africa together with the Mediterranean area, partly hidden by swirling clouds.

"Oh my..." I blurted out as I stopped dead in my tracks.
"Yeah, impressive isn't it," Palaistra replied as she stopped next to me. "I've seen it for millennia and I still can't really get enough of it."
"One never does," Kydoimos added with a nod of his head. "Perhaps because one was born up there."
"I was born here," Palaistra told. "Still it matters a lot. As a little girl I used to look at that planet a lot, wondering what it was like. I could hardly wait to become old enough for a visit."
"I never thought – are you sure this is another dimension – and not just some kind of – well, space ship?"
"Actually, I'd say both," Kydoimos grinned.
"Uh?" I felt my brows rocket up and nearly hit my hairline.
"The Aether is actually some kind of pocket dimension, resting inside our Solar System. A diminutive universe. It's a bit hard to explain, I know, you have to ask Athena or Pythagoras or someone who's good with these things."

Pythagoras? That name sounded familiar, but I decided to not research it at the very moment. After all we were lacking behind the rest and Hekate had turned, calling out to us to not get the 'Earth Craze'. Some joke obviously, but then again I was not that keen on having any more jokes on me. It was frustrating enough to be the rookie goddess all the time. So we turned our backs on the vision of my home planet and followed the rest of the New Yorkers down the slope to the town by the seashore. Still I did find it a bit hard to not turn again and look at that orb up there in the sky. The orb which was my birthplace.

I had expected the village Olympia to look like an ancient Greek fantasy. Marble white Parthenons with rows and rows of white pillars. But I saw very little of that kind of architecture. The town consisted mostly of elegant villas looking like a blend between buildings from Venice and old Kyoto and with some Arabian and Gothic touches. There were toppy roofs, towers, spires, stained glass windows, cupolas and balconies and lush garden with all kinds of growth - everything making up an exotic yet well balanced blend of the whole world. Then there were those swirling clouds and mists which seemed to surround everything and cordon it off, creating the strangest of effects. Even though the village in front of me was sloping down towards the ocean, when I turned around I was looking right into a cloud filled canyon, spanned with the most delicate bridge which appeared to be made of gold and glass, the latter sparkling and glittering in the sunlight, shooting of rays of primary colours as I regarded it. To the left of the bridge was a huge waterfall which put the Niagara to shame and it was surrounded by rainbows of the most amazing kind.

On the other side of the bridge was the most beautiful neoclassic palace I had ever seen. There was the 'ancient Greece' I had been looking for.
"That's the home of Hera and Zeus," Astrape told when I asked about it. "But we're not going there now. Come with me, I'll show you your place."
"I have a place here?" I asked surprised.
"Yes, it has just been dealt you, right next to me and Deimos in fact. And don't worry about its size. All houses appear rather moderate on the outside, but they are actually of a magic quality, you can make them as large as you want on the inside, and fill them with all kind of commodities you should desire, from a Morocco styled bathroom to a state of the art surround sound system. And waste spaces for your collected junk – and believe me, that's something you get a lot of as a god. Deimos have like 10 000 vinyl records for instance. Come! Let me show you!"

True, my new home did look like just a tiny Greek temple, a look Astrape told me was changeable as well. What I saw was just a default. And inside there was a hotel suite style bedroom, living room and bathroom, all opening up to a terrace facing the ocean.
"I'll show you how it works later," the weather goddess said. "Just leave your stuff here and we're off for the Agora!"
"What's that?"
"You'll see!"