Spring in the air
Up at Olympos I realised I was hungry. I hadn't eaten anything more than a banana since breakfast. There had been so much going on that food had not had a chance to be on my mind. So Zeus took the host's responsibility and had the nymphs conjure up an instant meal of soup, sandwiches and fruit, all washed down with white wine. And in the end some ice-cream. Not a visit to the Olympos without ice-cream!
Then he and I sat down in a neat little living room with outlook over the sea and the Ekarantannian skyline with its glittering neon and a fireworks display which might have something to do with the upcoming holiday. The others went to bed.
- Hera, he said, I'm glad you seem to have dropped some of that - in lack of a better word - soul shielding you've been displaying around me since your return to 'Tanni.
- It was - unintentional. I guess. I didn't want to... I didn't really know how to treat you. You used to be one of my best friends. You and Hestia. The people I could talk about everything with. Then I left, and came back to find you all hiding away on a mountaintop. And you had become Divine King. Distant even to the immortal population.
- We were not hiding. At least not from you. On the contrary.
- I came to that understanding. Later.
- I'm sorry if this year in Ekarantanni has made you feel uncomfortable among your old friends. We needed the Olympos to be able to go away from the everlasting buzz of the city without loosing contact with the important things. We wanted to be around, to be seen and trusted but at the same time have a place where we could be ourselves. Without curious, prying eyes. It wasn't so much about me. In fact, I like to be around people.
- But Iris for instance, Zeus went on, she's more sensitive and she felt stalked from time to time. And Eurynome and Astraios were also starting to feel uncomfortable with this everlasting attention. So I decided something had to be done. And then my eyes fell on this somewhat solitaire mountaintop.
- You've always been so caring about people, Zeus. I remember the very first time I saw you. In Erandoro. Anzoura had lost someone she loved, and you held her close, helped her through that immediate grief. I never learned who it was. A lover?
- It was Reikon. Her son.
- It became my first impression of you. That you cared. At the same time you were none one dared to alienate. A dangerous enemy.
- I guess... that's me in a nutshell. I guess that's what life made me into. I recognise those kinds of losses. I know what they feel like. You and I - we have both been through these experiences, loosing the ones we love. You saw yout father and then Neario die. I saw the Chronites kill my mother.
- And then this thing more recently... Metis...
When I mentioned Metis' name, Zeus breathed in hard and and squeezed his eyes together, finger and thumb pressing the upper parts of his nose.
- It's OK to cry, I told, putting my hand on his sholder. As you said yourself, we both know.
Then he started to tell. He told the bittersweet story of Metis and himself, the very one I'd got from Hestia almost nine months ago. But while she had given me the five minute summary this was Zeus's story, taking several hours to go through. It included his and Metis' first encounter in the old Nexus building, the first time he had been involved in a child birth, Athena, the reason he never went further with a relationship with Electra (falling for Metis) and other events connected to that story.
And last of all the horrible event with the Titans. Two lovers camping on the beach, way out from civilisation, there to enjoy each other and rejoice in their love and their little baby girl. Everything a paradise until the terror comes once again for them. One of the females grabbing the sleeping Athena, Zeus after them, manages to get his child back and to return only to find his beloved murdered.
- And there she was, lying on the rocks bent in a weird angle, blue eyes staring empty into the sky, energy signature gone.
- I traced them down, those murderers, he continued. I wanted them to suffer the way my poor Metis had been suffering. And the way I was suffering right then. But at the same time I had to be chaste. Hold back my raving pain. I couldn't bring in more suffering, because I feared that my young daughter was absorbing it. So I just zapped them. Enough voltage for an instant kill in a single blast. Most of the time revenge is a luxury you can't afford.
He talked a bit more. The sky outside had turned dark blue. Morning was arriving. Zeus told of the insecurity of being a lone father to a baby girl, and the help he had got from his beloved 'Sisters.
- Both my real sister and the others. They became extra-mothers for little Starchild. But even with all those friends around me I still knew there was one missing.
- Metis?
- No, you. Metis was gone, there was nothing I could do except for crying myself to sleep in the nights. But you were out there conquering the West, my brave lost Olympian.
- Was I really missed, Eagle? Even then?
- Yes you were, Peacock.
- Peacock! I started to laugh. You're right. That New Dawn party symbol. It has become... I'm not going to be rid of that one anymore, am I?
- No. It has been too connected to you, even after just one year in Ekarantanni. Everyone knows you as the Peacock Lady. Why a peacock by the way?
- They're beautiful birds. Love their colouring. And there were wild ones in Argos. Not many, but there was a couple living in my garden. I saw them from my window every morning and started to draw them. And then, one day I found myself with the embryo to this stylised party symbol we're carrying now. Its tail feathers like a rising sun – New Dawn.
- I remember you always had pens and papers with you back in the early days, and you did some amazing things. Are you still into drawing? Zeus asked.
- Not that much anymore. Haven't got the time these days.
Suddenly I felt tiredness in my eyes. Lids heavy with sleep. Zeus started to talk about political parties and marketing them but my mind drifted and his words melted with pre-sleep dreams of Titan terror mixed with angry delegates in the Golden Hall of the Nexus. My last conscious memory was Zeus laying a blanket over me.
- Goodnight Peacock, sweet dreams.
o-o-o
The next day it felt so oddly natural to take up the tread where we had finished. Before that I had breakfast with a handful Olympians in a sunny hall overlooking the sea. It almost felt like outdoors with those big windows and potted plants. Zeus still drank his cocoa and the three teenagers were there, Artemis and Irdonan fighting over something while Apollon busied himself with eating. Astraios and Demeter were eagerly discussing some news in the finance section of the paper and Hestia was asking for company - she wanted to go downtown and watch the parades. And once again - no one seemed to express any surprise that I was around.
After Irdonan and Artemis had "Yes it would", "No it wouldn't" at each other enough times I couldn't help asking what it was about. Apollon made a face like "Why bother", but Artemis turned to me, asking:
- Lady Hera, don't you think a boulder that size would crack the skull of a mortal? She indicated the cocoa-pot from which Iris was helping herself to more beverage.
- No, it's too whelping small, Athena's older brother stated.
- It would, I said. Especially if you drop it from some altitude. Remember, the mortals have no shielding that employs the instant a stone like that would touch their aura. Then their sculls are made of a much weaker cellular structure. On top of that they have very slow healing abilities.
- Right! Artemis exclaimed. Their brain-tissue would explode all over and with it blood and bone fragments…
- Artemis! Zeus lectured. There are people here eating. That conversation topic is not appropriate at a meal table.
- Irdo started it, the young, dark-haired girl said. He wanted to know…
- But you uttered the yuck, Apollon cut in. But I think that if you smashed a stone into…
- Enough, Zeus said.
- But why are mortals so fragile? Artemis insisted.
- Guess it's us that's durable, her father answered. We're of a later evolved branch of humanity. A bit updated. A bit refined and more fail-safe. Re-read your biology homework, Mimi! It's all in there!
o-o-o
After breakfast it was my turn to be the narrator. Zeus wanted to hear my Argos stories and he got everything from my first rainy day in the town to the celebration the night we won the referendum for joining the region into the Union.
- So Cheiron actually married! Zeus sounded almost surprised. During the days in the Order he always seemed like the bachelor surpreme. Running after girls, but leaving his heart back home in the cupboard while doing it.
- I know. He was very... special in that way. We even tried once. But then I guess he, like everyone else, found out that he wanted children. I guess Khariklo made him change his mind in a way. And now he just keeps talking about becoming a father everytime we're in contact.
- That's part of the great mystery that's life, Zeus said and seemed lost in thoughts for a while. Don't you want children, Hera? he asked.
- Later, I said. It's not the time for children in my life now. I want to do the Hyp. For several more decades at least. Maybe a century. I haven't even started to do what I really want to do in politics. Then... I'll se what's bound to happen. And if there's someone who wants to give them to me. To share them with me.
Zeus started to say something but changed his mind, and the glimpse of thoughts I caught was too small for me to see what he was aiming at. Instead he asked me to clarify a few things of my Argos story. He was especially interested in the political intriguing I had been involved in at the island of Ithaca. And they were complicated, involving everything from "surpricelings" like Thetis' mother Raoria who wrought the power out of the hands of the deity Qaiar and mortal politicians being held hostage inside an Agora building.
- It was actually Raoria who inspired me to go after Erebus the way I did. But when Qaiar was only almost healthily hungering for power and generally anti-union, there was something twisted with Erebus. The way he tried to kill Argus for instance. Zeus, why does a man, a god, behave like that?
- Because he was un-loved. Because he had no-one caring for him, holding him, loving him. Probably he took some mortal woman sometimes, for sex, but that's not the same thing. That's only butter when you need a sandwich. He should have had someone for him. A woman.
- He courted me once. Wanted me to be his. But I turned him down.
- No-one can blame you for doing that. You were probably not the only one too.
In the silence after these words I heard the clear ding-dong sound of a clock telling the time. And once again I realised that I had let time fly talking with Zeus.
- Eagle, I really must be going home. There's work to do, and even if that sofa was comfortable I need to be in my own bed tonight.
- You're right, I'm neglecting my duties too. But this was also a necessary thing. I feel I know you much better now than ever before. I understand your reasoning, I know why you felt you have to leave New Pantheon that day and the yearning to create something that was yours alone.
- Yes, but I couldn't have done it without my dear friends Cheiron, Neyta and all the rest. And that was something I never would have understood if I hadn't left. That you need friends, that you need helpers.
- I hope I can be one of these again, Hera.
- Certainly. Since I'll do the same for you. Just ask!
- One more thing, Peacock, he said. Stop living your life in circles!
- What do you mean?
- When this Neario named Kandrios is gone from your life, are you going to run away again?
First I didn't understand what he was getting at, but then it hit me:
- Zeus, I'm not madly in love with Kandrios. Not like it was between me and Neario. Kandrios and I are lovers. We do things together, have sex, take comfort in each others strength and presence. But it's nothing more than that. You should know about shallow affairs, Eagle, if anyone. What Neario and I had was different. That's something that won't happen to me again.
- It won't?
- No. Such things only happen once, if ever. And I'm glad I had it happen to me even if I lost it. I don't feel like talking about it though, even if it doesn't hurt as much as it used to.
- I understand perfectly. I just want to point out that there are... well, opportunities out there. Love don't have to be shallow.
- Maybe I'm content content with having it shallow at the moment. But thanks for your concern.
- You're welcome.
We hugged. For real and long. A hug of confirmed friendship. Whatever had been wrong between us was gone. I was so happy when I left Olympos. I had got my friend back. My 'Brother.
o-o-o
The evening was glorious. The wind from the sea was warm, carrying with it a promise of the seasons to come. I decided to walk home instead, to make my soul catch up. I landed at the inhabited down-sloaps of the Olympos. A mortal washing his car dropped his jaw seeing me and I smiled at him, almost flirtatious. Then I started to walk my way home through those little streets, taking in the sights of the mortals homes. Pretty villas, white most of them with colourful doors and blinds, sloped, bricked roofs and well-manicured gardens. Birds chirping everywhere. Playing kids, smell of grilled meat.
One or two early cherry trees had already started to bloom and I could imagine the sight when all the rest followed suit. The whole mountain-slope would be pink and white. No wonder this area was called Cherry Hills.
Kandrios was waiting for me when I came home and he looked upset over something.
- Where've you been Hera? I've been mindcalling, looking all over for you.
- I'm sorry, Kan. I was with friends and...
- None of these I talked with at least. Neither Freya nor Amaterasu had any idea where you were. Not even Neyta.
- I was at the Olympos.
- The Olympos! So Eris of Earaxxes was right then!
- What has she to got do...
- She said you left with Zeus yesterday after the Open Forum, and that you two were very cosy. I thought it was just one of her usual ways of causing trouble and disagreement between people. Kandrios crossed his arms against his chest looking at me with maddened hazel eyes.
- So this is it then, he went on.
- This is what? Kan, it's not the way you think.
- So in what way is it then? Don't tell me you visited Hestia or Leto because they both were downtown today, checking out the parade.
- Kandrios, I have told you this before. About Zeus's and my friendship which we ruined all those years ago. And we sorta started over today. Cleared the air if you know what I mean.
- I hope I do. Kandrios started to leave.
- Please, don't go. Kan, I need you!
- You can't have the cake and eat it too.
- Kan, if you still don't see reason I feel sorry for you. I am happy to have regained a friend who had been lost for me so many years. And if you can't be happy with me for such a thing...
- But he's...
- He's like Neyta to me. An old friend I have been through a lot of things together with and have a lot in common with. Neyta and I talk about everything, we do things together and help each other and you have never questioned that. Are you questioning this because Zeus is a man? Well, how about Argus then? And Zephyros and Ra?
- It's... Hera, you're right. I'm sorry. I was just... He took me in his arms. It's just this bitch Eris. The way she described it...
- ...was just one of her usual trouble making schemes. Don't fall for them, beloved! You know better than that.
- I guess I do. Forgive me honey.