Ten years later
"Why must things like this be at the most difficult times?" I sighed as we approached the middle grounds. "I thought you would be all over something like this. You know considering the vessels of light and dark are joining in marriage" steavie-rea was leaned back in her seat, mimicking me. "Yes I know this is a big symbolic ceremony, but did they have to do it right as I got the headquarters set up?" I was overwhelmed. We had just purchased a castle and the council was settling in. aspis was in the process of setting up warrior training. For the red vampyres instead of sons of Erebus, we would have sons of aspis. We just managed to shake off a media rain, the new red vampyres came out and now the media was attacking everyone.
Humans and vampyres had an even worse relationship now. "I think this would be a good vacation" shey piped up from the back seat of the car. "How? I'm helping them get married" it took a moment for them to figure the ceremony out. They were both under different goddesses, so in the end they decided for both sides to marry them. I was to collaborate with the leader of the blue council to marry them under both myself and my mother. "Ok well it's a vacation for us!" I rolled my eyes as everyone chuckled and shey stuck her tongue out at me. "Light and darkness getting married, that's just weird honestly. Besides those two can be so mean to each other sometimes" steavie-rea said.
"Yea that's what I thought when I first saw them, dinami on the other hand instantly knew why they were perfect for each other" aspis put his arm around my shoulder. "It seems like you know everything before anyone else does" shey raised her eyebrow at me. "What can I say? I'm a goddess it's a gift that comes with the title" I smiled and shrugged. "We are here! Look!" shey pointed as we pulled up in front of a nice house. It was a small manor, people stood in front of it waiting for us. "Oh goddess it's about to be a hero worship fest" I sighed and put my head in my hands. "I wouldn't worry too much" Stevie-rea got out of the car. The moment Stevie-rea got out of the car the cheering started. "Told you" I muttered.
"Always knowing something before everyone else" shey mumbled as I got out of the car. "Conductive reasoning I like to call it" I smiled as lily greeted us. "Sorry guys, I tried to get them not to do it. They insisted that they didn't want to risk angering you" lily gave me an apologetic look. "It's whatever" I shrugged then smiled. "It's great seeing you guys! I can't believe it's only been ten years!" lily clasped forearms with all of us then hugged us.
"So how's the whole balance thing going?" Stevie-rea asked. "Same like always, Loki is causing trouble and I'm helping him get out of it" lily had a big grin on her face. "You sure you're ready for marriage and spending your whole life with light?" shey teased. "Only if I'm ready for a life of gloomy darkness!" Loki popped up and joined us. "I'm not gloomy!" lily crossed her arms and pouted. "Look your being gloomy right now! Don't stop it's so cute" Loki grabbed lily and covered her face in kisses. "Bug off" lily giggled.
100 years later
The castle was silent, the warriors were at their posts and both councils sat with me. "When you started the red council no one thought it would cause issues like this with the human world-"I cut the head of the blue council off. "That is an issue that we should stand to gather against. The humans are afraid of us because of our secrecy. The red council will not disband, even if we did the presence of the red will still be lurking. We either work to gather or we against each other. Making two enemies to worry about instead of one" I put my fist down on the table.
"I was not suggesting the red disband! I was simply stating the issue!" the council leader stammered slightly. "Zoey what do you think we should do" Stevie-rea cut off the potential argument. "I think we should stick together and show unity. We have done all we could with the humans. We allow them more into our world than any other time has allowed" Zoey who sat right next to the blue council leader said. "We need to make sure we are balanced in order to be able to take this on" I looked at lily and Loki. They sat at each end of the table, sitting on neither side but from each other. "We are perfectly balanced, I haven't done anything to piss lily off recently" Loki waggled his eyebrows at lily.
She rolled her eyes and nodded in agreement. "I think we need to pay more attention to trying to win the people of faiths church over, they seem to be our biggest challenge" shey suggested. Zoey and I both shuddered violently at the sound of their names. "I hate those people" Zoey crossed her arms. "I don't like them either, remember my vessels mother?" I remember when I had the chance to meet her, she was a rather insane vicious woman. "If only we had freaks like that on our side, we could just have them dual off" I joked. "We do have freaks like that, the only problem is that they are stronger and can hurt them better" Zoey crossed her arms.
"Maybe we should try and make a new peace treaty, make it known that we don't want to hurt anyone and we just want to live life" Stevie-rea suggested. "We would do that if it wasn't for the fact that they brought security guards' with them whenever we had meetings" shey mumbled. "We bring our warriors, its only right they can bring their security" Stevie-rea pointed out. "We bring them and ask them to wait outside of the meetings, the humans are so piss scared they bring their security into the meetings" I replied. "Then let them have it if it gets shit done" Stevie-rea pressed. "It's disrespectful and I won't have it" I crossed my arms and leaned back. "We should have every house of night in the world have an open house, like we did when we were in school!" Zoey seemed excited about this.
"Ok we can try that if you want, I think it's a waste of time" "why?" Zoey asked. "Because that's what we did when we were in school. In case you haven't noticed we are full grown vampyres now. You are over a hundred years old zoey, on the council of a whole society" I leaned forward and pointed at zoey. "It worked at the time" zoey interjected. "Is it still working? We need long term solutions not short term" I replied. "Some sort of solution would be good right now, as long as it's something!" zoey argued. "I said we could try it!" I narrowed my eyes at zoey. "Good!" zoey replied as she narrowed her eyes back at me. Loki laughed "cat fight" he whispered theatrically to Kalona who stood behind Thanatos next to him. Kalona gave Loki a look and the smile faded off of his face.
300 years later
I stood behind zoey and she was looking into a mirror. "Are you nervous?" I asked her as I leaned against a pillar in her room. "Yea I am, I knew this would happen one day" zoey shrugged. "You have waited a very long time for this, you have also worked very hard for this" I tried to comfort her. "Still, am I ready for this?" zoey turned around and looked at me with her frightened eyes. "A woman of your age and standings should not be afraid of anything. Cut it out before I zap you into the otherworld" I stepped forward and zoey nodded and quickly wiped the fear from her face. "I wonder how I would have react if I was taking over a job like yours" zoey gulped just by thinking about it.
"Well when I was offered this job I didn't even think about it. I just took it" I shrugged. "Why did you just take it?" zoey asked me. "Because I knew it was my duty. The first time I saw a red fledgling I knew they were like me. I instantly respected them. There was no balance and by my showing up balance was restored. My mother noticed it and let it be. It was my duty to bow to my mother's wishes" I explained. "So you only did it because you respected the red vampyres and your mother asked you to do it?" zoey looked like she wasn't convinced. "I did it because of that, but now I care about the red fledglings and vampyres. I would do anything possible to protect them. They are my children just as you are my mother's daughter" I explained.
"You express your love differently" zoey remarked. "Well I'm the goddess of strength, and my personality is cold and harsh, the jokes I do make are pretty bitchy" I shrugged and smiled. "So how will things be different now that I'm taking over as head of the council?" zoey breathed in deeply as she said it. "Your one step below the goddess of nyx now. Just like steavie-rea is one step below me. Just keep doing what you're doing now and have been doing since you where sixteen" I shrugged. "Wow that was so long ago, I don't think I remember what I was like then" zoey had a thoughtful look on her face. "I remember how you were when you were sixteen. You have matured a lot yes, but you still are unsure of yourself at times and you have a special way of dealing with things and others" I encouraged her.
"thank you dinami, now that I take over as head I assure you we will work hand in hand to achieve our dreams for the world of vampyres" zoey saluted me. I smiled and hugged zoey "well duh, we are pretty good at what we do" I teased her. "I miss Anna sometimes" zoey whispered. I smiled at her "yea, I see in shey's eyes that she really misses Anna sometimes as well."
"She may have died with my vessel, but I was always deep down within her, I guess that would be if I had different traits, nicer ones ya know?" I looked zoey in the eyes. "The more and more time you spend with us, the more and more you remind me of her though. You're more open, you're not that creep silent observer. You're still annoying though" zoey was smiling. "You will do well zoey redbird" I clasped her forearm and bowed.
500 years later
I stood on the foundations of where it all started. This was where my vessel had become a vamprye and started my mission. The sports club that once stood here was now long gone, nothing was ever rebuilt in its place. I sat down on the ground with my legs crossed, my sword in the ground before me. Deep in my mind I begged myself one memory. One memory that would allow me to know who my human vessel was. Anna had died that night, and I survived. Anna was so strong, she refused to be pushed aside by my presences. Two people sat in that vessel, myself and Anna.
The humans Anna had worked with once walked around this place, joking with her and being with her. Before she knew any of who she carried inside of her, she laughed and threw pens at her friends. "Anna, thank you for loaning me your life. I always hoped we could be as one" I sighed and looked around. The night then lit up and before me stood my vessel. Anna smiled at me and offered her hand out. I took her hand and she helped me up. "We always are one dinami! I gave my life to you so you could do right. I gave my life to you, because we were always one" Anna brushed my hair out of my face.
"you had so much to live for though! Your kind have one life, I wasted it and made it short" I had to admit the guilt finally caught up to me. "No, you brought so much to it in the end. You saved me from my mother, you gave me the friendship I craved and the love I craved. Aspis may be yours, but his vessel was mine. I had love and friendship, you did something that one could only hope for" Anna was smiling softly. "I stole it from you" I grabbed her hand and held it in the air in front of my face.
"When I died, my friends and loved ones where not left behind alone. You returned and you took my place and cared for them. I promised shey that I would always be her best friend, you kept that promise. When I failed you stepped in and helped." Anna gently moved our hands down to her chest. Then emotions rattled me and images flew into my mind. "I share with you not one memory, but many of the fun times I had with the people you gave to me. Love, friendship, family, happiness, joy" seeing aspis standing next to dragon hit me. The man who came to my room the day I woke up from death. That had been Anna's father, who still cared for me.
"You gave me meaning" Anna whispered. Then it clicked and I changed. It's not often a goddess changes, whatever that change is, it affects all who rules under her. This change was good though, the whole meaning of strength just changed. Strength was not to hide emotion and fight. Strength was to hold onto things that could never be replaced, and knowing this pain will come. You still hold on to it. Strength was never about battle, flawless planning, and holding burden while showing no pain. Strength was to keep pushing forward with pain on your face. Even though you're in pain you still push.
"I am proud of what I did and that I was chosen to share it with you. We made the world a better place" Anna smiled brightly. Anna's smile widened as two new people joined us. Aspis and his human vessel Brandon now joined us. Aspis knelt down and bowed to me then got up and embraced me. Brandon slowly walked to Anna with his hand out. "Seems my human vessel decided to follow yours, a true warrior" aspis whispered in my ear. "Anna, when you died I cried. I knew dinami would return, but I knew you were gone. I had to stay strong though, and stay by Dinami's side to be faithful to aspis. I beg of you to forgive me and accept me back" Brandon bowed deeply and Anna cried as she knelt down and kissed him.
"I think you two deserve another chance, if you are willing to belong to people" I smiled at Anna and Brandon. "Only do it if it can be our bodies alone. We don't want to go stealing a newborns body" Anna rubbed Brandon's hand as she spoke. "Of course, go enjoy your lives finally, and know in your next life that we expect great things of you" aspis and I bowed to them and they disappeared.
"Come on lets go home my love, it seems you have a lot of things to tell me considering I don't remember anything" aspis touched my cheek with his palm. "I wish you could remember what I can always" I felt something new coming to me. "You have changed my love" aspis noted as he watched my tears gather. "I have" I was crying now, and it felt good. "First time I have seen you cry" aspis brushed my tear away. I smiled "I don't think this will be the last" I then kissed aspis and we returned to the otherworld hand in hand.