I'll be honest, I'm not sure how happy I am with this chapter. Then again I've rewritten it five times and can't make it better so I've given up. I've also come up with a cliffhanger for the next one! Get me!

Fire.

The news that Gabriel and Hecate have chosen to formalise their bond with one another through the Binding Ceremony is greeted with a great deal of shock. The tradition has long been ignored as meaningless, a ceremony that was used to simply confirm before everyone a bond that has been forbidden since Aphrodite and Hephaestus. It is common knowledge that something Hecate and Loki have done together has bound them at the core level, at what would be a soul if they were human, but not a single one of the others knows what that is. Not a single one of them understands why the goddess would chose him in the first place.

Hecate has always been much respected by the others; her power and standing in a society that feared and revered her has always drawn attention, as has her ability to retain worshippers over the countless centuries of their existence. It has made her powerful in their eyes and no one understands why she would chose Loki of all the gods in the universe to be her bond-mate. Hecate has no interest in justifying her choice to them, has no interest in telling them that there is infinitely more to Loki than they can ever understand or comprehend. As far as she is concerned she is having his child, she is bound to him in every way that matters and the only part that is outstanding will soon be taken care of.

The Binding Ceremony is not something that Hecate would have considered before now, not because she has no interest in it but because she has never met someone that she would wish to go through it with. Gabriel has changed all of that, the archangel has waltzed into her life and carved himself out a place in it that the goddess had never been aware was available. She knows that this is something that she will never regret, something that she has wanted without realising it.

At just over five months pregnant she has debated long and hard about when to hold the ceremony, whether to wait until after the child is born or to do it now while Gabriel is still all for the idea. Ultimately it is decided for her by Isis. The other goddess offers to officiate the ceremony and one of the dictates is that no god with the blood of either of the participants on their hands is allowed to perform the ceremony. Aiding Hecate with the birth of her child will qualify as blood on her hands. With Gaia out of the picture, Hecate would like her dearest friend to perform that ritual which will cement and confirm that relationship she has so privately taken on.

It will be good to allow the others to see just how much the one they call Loki really means to her.

It is also the sort of thing that will paint targets on them. Even though Hecate has been all but cast out of the pantheons because of her association with Loki such a high profile ceremony will surely draw their attention back to her. It would draw the attention of those who are jealous of the good fortune she has found at the hands of a god reviled and despised by so many for so much. There are many who would like revenge on Loki for some insult, whether real or imagined, and that will put Hecate directly in the firing line. There is no better way to hurt a god than to attack the one that he really loves or slaughter his child.

Hecate knows that Gabriel will protect her, his desire for the ceremony proves that.

The Binding Ceremony itself is very simple, a gathering of gods and goddesses in the holy place of the couple who are to be bound. Since the couple are from two different pantheons they have chosen the council chamber as the venue. It has been decorated simply, with little more than pale red bunting and belladonna flowers. This is not a ceremony to display their bond and rub their love into the noses of the others.

The magic of this ceremony is simple, the binding of their hands with a red ribbon and the whisper of words that promise an eternity together of respect and love. The entirety of the words spoken are known in full to very few, the spell itself is a powerful one and even spoken by accident the words could have a permanent effect. As the promises are uttered and true names breathed into a profound hush that swallows them with no indication of acknowledgement, the ribbon gradually seems to glow. Finally, a brilliant rush of fire engulfs the binding, drawing a gasp of awe from the gathered masses of gods and goddesses.

When the flames finally dim and clear there is no sign of injury to the couple, only the curl of red that seems to shimmer under their skin. They are marked and bound to one another and Hecate knows that there will only be one other event that will make her happier than this moment: the birth of their child.

Artemis