Another heart breaks

- Okay, class is over, Athena. You're doing fine, your progress is excellent. That mortal woman really did get a new life. Anaktoron closed his note book and rose. Let's go for a walk, it's a wonderful evening. I nodded slightly and let him take my arm, as we walked out through the open terrace doors and took a jumping shortcut the five floors down to the wet grass.

It had stopped raining about an hour ago and now the full moon was shining trough rags of clouds.
- Something you want to talk about? I guessed as Anaktoron and I started to walk down the pebbled path through the Cretan Garden. Crickets and frogs were calling out their mating songs and somewhere more human music was heard. Apollon was playing that lyre again.
- There's some homework I want you to do, Anaktoron said. I'll point you to some books I know are in the Olympic library. But first I want to talk about other things. I want to leave the business part of our life behind a bit.

- What do you mean? We had stopped beneath a large elm where fireflies were dancing.
- I want to tell you that you are more than a good student to me. You are a very extraordinary woman. You're different from the rest. More refined. There's purity in your heart and brilliance in your mind that even outshine that of Great Zeus. I have come to appreciate you in a very special way during these weeks. I want to get to know you better on another level. A more private one.
- You mean as in...
- Hush! Anaktoron took my face in his hand. You know what I've said about talking too much. Then he kissed me and I felt my mind start spinning. This was my fantasy coming true...

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The next day I found myself in the library, still a bit shivering and mesmerized after the night spent with Anaktoron. While trying to read "The Immortal Body" I suddenly heard voices some bookshelves away:
- Philotes of Renlaziar? I heard dad. And he was good? Someone mumbled something in reply. Astraea?

- No, don't give me that look, Peacock! I know you weren't content yesterday night. Or you wouldn't have torn at my tunic the way you did. Hera answered something where "sleeping around" and "jealous" were the only words I could hear.
- No, never, dad said. I can tell that none of Philotes, Kephalos and Aeolus satisfied you the way you want satisfaction from a man. The way I give it to you. I see it in your eyes, they were nothing but momentary pleasures, just as my little flings always have been.

- You're so sure of yourself, Hera mumbled.
- More sure of where I got you, darling. You're so transparent sometimes. You never really wanted anyone but me. Trying to provoke jealousy in me by playing around with young gods isn't working. It's just a game, temporary moments of pleasure. Means little, forgotten in the morning.

Hera and dad talked about some book and then they walked on and I couldn't hear them anymore. So dad didn't care about Hera's affairs? He thought them as unimportant as his own events. Wonder if Hera understood that he was actually saying more about himself than about her, that he had just given her a reason for trusting him.

I soon forgot about the royal couple though. That night Anaktoron came to my place and I invited him in. Way in! Both into my body and my soul. I let those dark brown eyes devour me, those sensitive hands with their long fingers explore me and I let his passion be mine. Anaktoron, of far east of Eleithahar, on the other side of the mighty Khalesmos mountain range who had come to Olympos to teach us this exotic art of seeing inside a human soul and reading and healing her wounds. Anaktoron whose special talents were so different from anything I knew from earlier experiences. And who was giving to me all he knew. Who became mine...

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In the Academy of Athens people were looking out in the night sky, through a big telescope showing stars and galaxies which were so far away that the light had travelled for millennias to come here. Nike's brother Nardalon was supervisor of the telescope and he was surrounded by a large group of mortal students, listening enchanted to his divine voice:

- When the light left these suns our world was still controlled by the race of Gaia, and our kind, the Homo Sapiens, were just cave-dwellers. Even the mighty Titan race was but an embryo, just being born on the shores of Muria. I'm talking 150 000 years back in time here, my young ladies and gentlemen. Still that's just a second when we're dealing with the Universe. It is old. Inter-dimensional researches have proven it to be billions of years.

A petite, dark-haired girl rose her hand:
- But how can that be? The Earth Book say that the Earth and Heaven were created in...
- That's Titan knowledge, Tridora, Nardalon answered her. The Titans told of a different world, because they didn't know better. They had no way of learning how the universe was created, and they lacked the ability to understand long time-spans. For them everything had started with their race's emerge. Uranos defeating Gaia was their opinion of creation. And Chronos' death was the End of the World. That was why they fought so hard against Great Zeus. But let's return to the stars...

When the students had left Nardalon invited me to look trough the telescope too. I had been stargazing before, but nothing could have prepared me for this. It was actually possible to see thousands of years back in time. To see stars that were only tiny dots in the night-sky. There are stars out there with planets like our own and huge clouds of gas. I had farsighted them with 5D methods earlier, but it was entirely different to see them through a 3D instrument. No spiritual disturbances.

I also saw the planets and the moons of our own star system with new eyes. The green, lush forests of misty Venda, the red desserts and the ruins and dry canals of the lost civilisation of Maerda. Again I wondered what had happened to these people, as well as to the destroyed planet outside Maerda. Then there were the gas giants, Jutar, Satori, Ur and Tun followed by some stone globes that were hardly planets, revolving far far away from the Sun.
- Do you think it's meant for mankind to go to these places? Nike's brother asked me.

- Why not? They are there, and one day we'll be able to build vehicles to take us there. Even though I can see no reason for us to visit the gas giants I sure want to know what lives in the jungles of Venda and try to find out what happened to the Maerdans.
- You're so confident, Athena. You really think everything can be done.
- Yes, why not. Given time, which we have plenty of. You and I are immortal and the mortals will have offspring who are going to sail among the stars. I even think it can be possible to travel to these planets surrounding other stars.

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- Going to the stars? Anaktoron was smiling. That should be you coming up with something like that, Athi. You really are an amazing being. I'm so glad I met you.
- And I'm so glad I met you. Do you think we were meant for each other?
- You are meant for greatness, Athena. If you want me along on that journey I'd be proud to follow you.

Anaktoron took hand, kissing it lightly with soft lips. He was still a bit sweaty after our lovemaking and I treaded with my fingers through his wet forehead locks.
- You're welcome everywhere, beloved.
- Even to the stars?
- Yeah, but not tomorrow, I said. In another 150 years or so, when we have straightened out all problems here, I suppose we could start investing time and energy to leave Earth. You know I've been thinking about something else. I've made some discoveries considering 5D farsighting.

- Enlighten me, Athena! I don't know much about it.
- For a long time this technique has been regarded as a novelty, something depending on certain brain qualities. Foremost, the trait that makes it possible to farsee is almost exclusively limited to immortals and secondly it's a technique that takes long time and much concentration to master. I have more or less of it, but I'm far from a master.
- Why?

- It's about practice and keeping the skill alive. Dad uses it all the time to check on things around the world. Then you have to have the right screen tool. Best of all is a pool of water, there's something with the H2O that makes it easy to project images upon it. I've heard enough jokes about people sighting in the loo by the way. Second best is anything flat and shiny, like a mirror or a polished surface of some kind.

- You must concentrate on the place you want to see, and your mind connects to the area through the 5:th dimension, I went on. That's why it's called 5D. Or you can make the mind connecting to the one you want to see through the chi flow. Skilled people like Dad and Oreynadan can do fabulous things like projecting several pictures of different things on the same screen, and even exclude people from seeing it. Now I believe there must be some way of recording these screenings, just like if you had had a camera mounted on the place you wanted to see.

- Have you tried it?
- Yes I did. First I tried rigging a camera and aiming it at the sight-screen. That didn't work at all. I was having a ball sending pictures of Aphrodite and Ares doing all kind of things with each other, but the film only ended up consisting of several boring minutes of a plate of water.
- Aphrodite and Ares would have been nice to see, Anaktoron smiled.

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- I could have told you so, dad said the next morning. The things we "see" on those screens aren't really there. We see them in our heads, the screen being only the receiving point we're concentrating on.
- But how can others see...
- They see it through the senders brain. They receive if they are only the slightest sensitive to these things, which almost every immortal is. It's not a reception of transmitted light waves, like your films. It's transmitted chi instead. Films and photographies are only sensitive to light waves.
- So what we need is a chi-sensitive film? I asked.

-That's right, Hera said and sat down next to dad with a cup of coffee in her hand and one for Astraea. Oh - that beverage, so trendy and so disgusting!
- Thanks, mama, Ea mumbled with eyes half-open. She's everything but a morning person.
- A whole new kind of science, Hera went on. You can master it Athi, I'm certain!
- How come it's so easy to screen upon water or mirrors but not on - like this table? Apollon asked.
- It's only a matter of concentration, dad said. Water or mirrors are flat, shining surfaces with nothing that disturbs. Water has the quality of calming the brain with its own chi. But look at this:

Suddenly there was some kind of picture covering the things that filled the table. Upon the newspapers, empty china, napkins, cups, silverware and other breakfast utilities I saw something that looked like skyscrapers. Eos arrived and sat down:
- What are you guys doing?
- Now look, dad went on and levitated everything into a heap by the empty chair Ares had vacated five minutes ago. Then, upon the reddish marble, we saw Ekarantanni in the pink light of dawn, the very same picture that could be seen from the window behind me. The patterns in the marble disrupted the picture, making it look like a puzzle.

- See? All you need is a clean screen. It's the same thing if you should show a film on a messy table. Impossible to make out what's there.
- Beautiful, Eos said.
- I only wonder... I said, how am I going to put this on film?
- Would it be possible to achieve it through psychokinetics? Apollon speculated. Affect the film with your brain?
- I'll give it a try, I said.
- There goes our privacy out of the window, Eos snorted. Now we'll never know if someone's going to spy upon us and film that.

- Oh, there's ways to ward that off, Hera said. Disrupt the chi and you'd be left alone.
- But I can't... Eos looked sad and lost.
- You can practice, Hera said with her down to Earth look.

¤¤¤¤

- Ana? I knocked on the door to his suite. I could feel him inside, but he was not answering. Strange. Curious I pushed the door open, and heard laughter. Anaktoron. And my sister Eleithya. What where they up to?

Next second I stopped dead in my tracks to the sight meeting me. There he was, my beloved, on the wide living room sofa, undressed and sweaty and with my sister beneath. It was obvious enough what was going on. I could hardly breathe at the revelation. In spite I heard myself utter Anaktoron's name and felt him turn and look at me:
- Athena? What are you doing…?
- What are you doing? I felt my voice go high-pitched.

When I turned and ran out I head Thya calling out my name, but blood was buzzing in my ears and I felt something red come to my eyes and then salty tears. Anaktoron – with Eleithya! So all those words about how special I was had obviously been lies! Had he been saying the same thing to Eleithya? And Astraea? Astraea had quit the classes rather soon after the group teachings were over, was that because she was not interested in going to bed with Anaktoron? Was I just a big looser, fooled the same way as poor Hera had been.

At the thought of Hera I stopped in my tracks and those running feet closed in on me in the long corridor. Anaktoron caught my arm.
- Athena, I'm sorry, this is not what it looks like…
- What do you think I am? Stupid? Don't you think I'm recognizing a sex act when I see one?
- It was for educational reasons. Thya and I had come to the part of her education where…
- Education my rear end! You've just been using me. And Thya! Your bastard! And she was ready to be fooled the way you'd been fooling me?

- No, Athena, No! I'd...
- What is this all about? Eleithya had arrived behind our teacher, looking consternated and angered. Why did Athena...
- I came to surprise Anaktoron. But it was obviously the wrong moment for a surprise.
- But why are you so mad, Athi? Thya asked.
- Because I've been set up by this mister Soul Pimper! And so have you, dear little sister.
- What the... Thya looked like she just seen a pink dragon in the ladies room.

- Girls... Anaktoron tried.
- Yeah we are apparently stupid girls, easy to fool with sweet words and soft kisses. Did he tell you too how precious and unique you were, Thya?
- I... he... Now tears came up in my sister's eyes. Then she started to curse in a way I had never heard this usually so gentle girl curse, and when Anaktoron tried to sooth her she suddenly lashed out and slapped him in his face.

The soul healer looked surprised when he touched the reddening cheek where Thya's open hand had hit him. Then he said:
- Have my teachings been to no avail then? Haven't any of you understood...?
- We understand well enough, thank you, Thya said with tears streaming down her cheeks. You've just been using us, having fun. Now I know what mum meant with "taking care of my heart". I hate you, your bastard! Then Thya turned and ran off in the opposite direction, with no seemingly other goal than putting as much distance between herself and Anaktoron as possible.

Anaktoron stared a bit at the corner where Eleithya had disappeared, and then he turned to look at me.
- Surely you understand better, Athena what this was all about.
- No, sir, I said with thorny voice. Please enlighten me; I don't think I'm going to pass your test otherwise.
- It's about physical release. Without physical release no one can see the reality of one's soul. And without understanding the own soul no one can cure other people's souls.
- Then I think I can do without soul healing in the future. And that I think goes for Thya too.

By those words I too turned and left Anaktoron alone in the corridor. I had let myself become used by a man and I felt miserable over it, promising myself "never again".

A slight knock on my door in the late of night. And since it wasn't Anaktoron I went down to open.
- Thya...
- Athena, hope you're not mad at me.
- Why would I? It wasn't your fault. You got fooled as much as I by that jerk.
- I've talked to dad. He's sending Anaktoron away. Hope you're not going to mind.
- No, I'll celebrate at the thought, I said with a sarcastic laugh. I guess there won't be any Olympian soul healers in the nearest future.

- Wrong, I'm continuing the studies, Eleithya stated and raised her cheek a bit.
- You are?
- I sure am. But with books and own researches. There are enough mortals down there with tattered souls for me to practice on.
- But without a teacher...
- I'll just have to do it on my own, Athi. Because if I don't I'll let that bastard Anaktoron win the game.

Then we looked at each other for a second or two before falling into each other's arms.

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A week later Hera gave birth to little Hebe, her daughter no 4. And I reminded myself that there was more to life than rouge men while holding my newest little sister. She was looking at me with interested brown eyes and holding on to my pinkie finger with her delicate little hand.