Godfall

When people think of fire, they often think of men. Helios, the titan who became the sun. Hephaestus, god of fire and the forge, craftsman of armor and weapons of war. Prometheus who stole flame from the seat of Olympus itself. Fire is destructive, hungry, and wild.

But fire is also beautiful and powerful. Hestia is goddess of the hearth, homes and thresholds. That is how fire is treated in Themyscira. Not some man's tool, but a source of warmth, nourishment, welcoming, and beauty.

That is, until yesterday.

I had been standing atop a ridge in the heart of the woodlands when I saw a second star appear in the sky. I was familiar with the sun named Helios, but the new one filled me with fear. It grew in intensity, and I heard a magnificent roar come from the fireball. I soon had to cover my ears, and I was blinded by the light it emitted until it crashed into the trees a league to the south of me.

I should have known it at the time, but it was not until later that I knew the truth: Man's fire had invaded Themyscira.

I saw her at the foot of the temple. Themyscira was devoted to the gods of women and femininity, so there was a well-tended temple that featured shrines to Aphrodite, Athena, Hestia, Artemis, and- above all- Hera. Clea was standing in full armor with a bow and loaded quiver strapped to her back. It was her duty to offer admittance to the temple and to guide those who needed particular help from one of the gods.

When I came within ear shot, I called out to her and picked up to a jog. She looked up and flashed a large, fierce smile. I had known Clea my entire life, and though she was my elder, she had grown to be a close friend.

"Diana!" she exclaimed. "What brings you to the temple on this fine day? Do you need to ask Artemis for more help with your archery?'

I laughed at that as I stopped in front of her. "No, sister. I think if I were to ever best your marksmanship, Artemis herself would invite me to live on Olympus."

"You honor me, but surely you have not come to offer me compliments?"

"Why should that not be reason enough?" I kept my tone jovial, but inside my nerves began to ache. I expected some stir after yesterday's events, but most of my sisters that I had seen acted as though not a thing had occurred. "But I do have a question for the gods today. I saw a new sun in the sky yesterday and I was curious if it were a brother of Helios, or if we now had more than Hekate as our sisters in the sky."

Clea gave nothing away with her face, but she took a half a second longer to respond than I would expect.

"You are not usually one to speak in riddles, sister. I only see one sun this day."

"That's the odd bit," I countered. "I saw it fall out of the sky and crash into the woods to the southeast. When I went to see what celestial thing had fallen, I only saw an empty crater. As well as several sets of hoofprints leading towards the temple."

Clea opened her mouth to respond, but stopped herself. We stood in tense silence for several moments, and I became legitimately concerned. Clea had never hidden anything from me, and I had never known her to be ignorant of events on the island. She didn't want me to have seen what I had seen.

Finally, Clea relaxed her shoulders and dipped her head in resignation.

"Hippolyta said that you would be asking about it. She told me to wait until she arrived to tell you anything, but it seems your stubbornness has awakened earlier than her highness expected."

I smiled. "So what was it that fell? Can you tell me?"

"Better yet, I can show you."

Clea took me below the temple. There was a great chamber under the temple where the Amazons protected powerful objects, weapons wielded by heroes, and armors fashioned by the gods. There was the Girdle of Hippolyta next to the Club of Heracles- a memorial to a formative event in the history of Themyscira. There was a blank canvas hanging on the wall that was painted by the Oracle at Delphi who claimed that it would reveal the fate of those who the painting chose to reveal itself to. In a secluded corner there was a cube of undecorated stone that was only known by the name 'Mother.'

There was also a set of armor attached to a mannequin that was said to be crafted during a rare alliance of Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena. It consisted of Hera's crown- which was indestructible and would always return to its rightful owner- Aphrodite's breastplate- which was as strong as the bonds of truest love- and instead of a sword at the hip, there was the Lasso of Athena- which compelled anyone trapped in it to speak the truth. It was given to Queen Hippolyta as a symbol of her office, but she has not had much use for it since the creation of Paradise Island.

I had been to this place many times, and I had memorized all the stories. What was new to me, however was the large object that now filled the center of the chamber. It was large, gray, and shaped like an arrowhead. It was in shambles, the sides crumbling and exposing metal beams beneath. I had never seen a structure so large made entirely out of metal.

I turned to my left and stood agape towards a great hole dug into the stone wall in front of the structure.

"Terrifying, isn't it?" Clea asked.

"What is it?" I asked without turning away my gaze.

"One of our sisters was inspecting the components of this vessel and ran across these," She indicated a long protrusion from the bottom of the structure. It was shaped like the shaft of a metal spear. "Fire blossomed out of it and smote a hole in the wall before our sister could turn it off. She barely escaped with her life."

"You called this a vessel. Why?"

"Because," She said gesturing behind me with her head. "It had a captain."

I whipped my head around and looked at a stone table along the far wall. On it was a sheet covering a body. I knew from the outline of the form, but my curiosity drove me forward and before I realized what I was doing, I was pulling the sheet back.

It was a man. Dark skinned, with a short crop of hair on his scalp. He was clean shaven, but his face was marred by wounds that had long stopped bleeding. he wore strange garments; simple, functional, and made of a stiff fabric that I had to stop myself from idly touching. I could see blood that had dried in the middle of his shirt.

He was a man.

For thousands of years, the Law of Hippolyta had been in place on this island. The Law stated that any man who would set foot on this island would be subject to the death penalty. Hippolyta had made the law after her capture by Heracles had forced the abandonment of the original Themescira. It is why all the Amazons wear bracelets made of adamantine- to remind us of our bondage to men. Since then, the Amazons had been gifted, by the gods with immortality, so that they could continue to live in paradise without the interference of barbaric men. I reflected darkly that this man had been the first man on Themescira in thousands of years, but the Law of Hippolyta had still found justice.

"It is suspected that he died on impact," Clea told me as if she were asking an unspoken question. I had many, but I did not need to know how he died. "The Queen seemed assured that he did not suffer."

"Who is he?" I asked. "Where did he come from?"

"He appears to have his name stitched to his-" Clea was interrupted suddenly by the striking of a staff on stone. Looking up, I saw the Queen of the Amazons standing on a balcony over us. Hippolyta was wearing a dazzling white robe with a gold crown of leaves around her skull. Her platinum hair fell nearly to her waist and she wore a disapproving scowl on her face.

"Hello, mother," I said.

"Diana. I am surprised to see you here since I explicitly told Clea not to allow you down here.' She gave a pointed look towards Clea then turned back to me. "Now that you have come, I imagine you have questions-"

"Who is he?" I began, the questions running over each other. "From where has he come? How did he die? What is this structure? When-"

My mother stopped me from talking with a raised hand, and she rubbed her forehead with the other.

"Diana," Hippolyta sighed. "Diana, this is complicated. This man has come from the world outside that which you had been raised in. If I were to give you all the answers to your questions, you would still be just as confused."

"Then make me understand! I know nothing of the world beyond the sea that surrounds our island. This man, this-" I looked at the label attached to his clothing. It was in Latin characters, not Greek, but I had been educated sufficiently that I could pronounce the name. "This Trevor died for some reason. We have to know what that is."

Hippolyta fixed a cold stare at me from the balcony. I saw a swarm of arguments pass over her eyes, but they eventually settled.

"Diana," she conceded. "I sometimes regret being the only mother on this island. No one else has to deal with a constantly willful, arrogant, stubborn daughter. But you are right, you deserve to know."

My mother took me to the balcony and then to a section that had been closed off with a dividing curtain. She parted the silky fabric and it moved like water to reveal a small room that was not much larger that the closet in my bedroom. Seemingly suspended in the air were four silver plates that hummed with energy. Hippolyta moved to a pedestal in the corner and made a few gestures with her hand. Immediately, the air in front of me filled with images of people, places, skies, animals-

A gasp escaped my lips unbidden and I looked to my mother for answers.

"When I established Paradise Island and erected the new Themescira," Mother explained. "The gods gifted me this that I might observe the world of men and see if there would come a time that it would be safe to reveal this island; that we could finally join a society that had striven for the same peace that we have here. Behold, the world of men!"

Images then poured out onto the plates. I saw animals that were more exotic than I had ever experienced. I saw men women and children of races and cultures that I had only read about. I saw cities that were not made of stone, but of metal and glass- they reached through the clouds themselves. At first, I thought the city must be Olympus itself, but then I saw dozens- hundreds of such cities.

"Amazing," I said with a slack jaw. My mother gave me a piteous look and a new stream of images came forth.

I saw warriors in strange armors. Men against men, using weapons that could kill from hundreds of paces away. The weapons became smaller, but more accurate, and the targets changed. No longer were soldiers attacking soldiers; they were attacking civilians, women, and children. Unarmed refugees ran in the wake of projectile fire and many fell in a gruesome display of blood. Finally, all the images coalesced into one scene:

A city. One of the larger ones that I had seen, but strange in its design. Above it flew a small figure. At first, I assumed it to be a bird, but it was too large and moved too fast. Something dropped from the figure as it passed over the city. I barely had time to open my mouth to ask a question before the entire city was consumed in a fireball of destruction. In seconds, nothing remained of the great structures. The plates then lost their shimmer and the images were gone.

"What was that?"

"A nuclear bomb. A man's invention. One of many devices man has developed to kill and destroy in their wars. It was dropped by another weapon of war: the airplane. The structure you saw below was one of those airplanes.

"The man who died in the crash was from a nation called America. A warrior and soldier; a murderer and monster. This captain, even had the Law not been in place, would have been executed simply for what he represents."

"Isn't that dangerous, though?" I asked. I was surprised that my mother was not reacting as strongly to this. Didn't she understand the implications? "Where there is one, there could be more! Themescira has been discovered and we are danger."

Hippolyta raised her hands to quiet me. "Relax daughter. The island is still protected by the gods. I observed the plane falling out of the sky, and it did not know where it was. When it entered the skies above us, the plane malfunctioned and caused the crash. The secret of our sanctuary died with him."

"He is a soldier, though. His commanders will miss him, certainly?"

"They will never find him. If any stumble upon us again, they will meet the same fate."

Her words were true. I didn't even know why I was arguing for this man, but there was something nagging at me. I needed to know more, to do something, but I wasn't sure what it was. On a chance, I tried to appeal to a different side of my mother.

"He is a man, mother, but also a person. He has a family, friends- someone will miss him. We should send an emissary with his body," Hippolyta looked as if she was going to interrupt me, so I began to talk more quickly. "Perhaps this consular venture would also prompt a move towards greater improvements. The Amazonians could share the philosophies and politics that have maintained peace on this island for centuries. Is that not what the gods have trained us for?"

"Diana," by the tone of my mother's voice, I knew she had already blocked my arguments like a stone wall. "The gods gave me this give to monitor the world of men and it is obvious to me- as it should be obvious to you- that the world does not deserve for the Amazonians to return. We will maintain our peace and our seclusion."

"But-"

"Diana! This conversation is over!" I would have stormed out of her balcony had she not done it first. I stared after her for several minutes. I'm sure Clea tried to say something to me, but I stormed out on my own and walked out into the undeveloped forests to the east to think.

I was mad.

I was mad that I didn't know why I was mad.

This Captain Trevor was an enigma. He was the first man I had ever laid eyes on, yet there was something in him that I swear I recognized. I needed to know more about him; about the world he came from, but there was no way I was going to get that information if my mother continued to block me out.

My mother. The only mother among the Amazons on this island, and I was the gods-blessed one who was gifted with her constant oppression. She was not a mother in the usual sense, of course. I was not product of a man's seed, but a pure offering of the gods. Hippolyta desired a child, but knew her integrity was too strong: she would not let a man break the Law of Hippolyta just to impregnate her. Rather, she formed a child out of the clay and sand by the beach and prayed to Hera- God of Mothers- until she fell asleep. When she awoke, I was lying next to her, crying for the arms of my mother.

It was that same woman whose integrity would not let anyone leave the island to seek the origins of this strange man. Somehow, though, I had to convince her. I had to-

Motion caught my eye. I turned around and drew my sword in a single motion. I was in a clearing, and I saw that there was no one behind me, just the rustling of wind in the blades of grass. I straightened from my fighting stance and shrugged my shoulders. I was clearly too tense.

"My, aren't you jumpy?" said a voice from directly behind me.

I whipped around and saw a man. He loomed over me and was clad from head to toe in black armor. His helmet covered his head entirely, but I knew enough about his identity.

A man was on Themescira.

And he was armed for war.