…I am to end it here, my Queen, though there is still much to write. But above all else, know that I am well and thriving. My longing for Olympus and with you will never wane. Until then. My love and regards. Nike.
Athena drew Nike's parchment gently to her chest, smiling to herself before the breaking sunrise from the solar of her Queenschamber. She had woken from thirst and nausea which was diminished by the cool air of a rainy dawn. The drizzle left a thin film of droplets across the tiles which now vapored as the warm light expanded at the herald of day. Nike's youthful voice replayed in her mind, echoing memories she spent schooling her and watching her prosper in her own might.
Emptying her kylix of warm water, Athena walked back inside, only to be slowed down as the heave of musk wallowed through her nose like an intangible embrace. She looked at her bed, peered through the translucent white silks before regaining the breaths lost to her. She remembered… she has a husband, an unruly heap of muscles sprawled face down across the sheets.
Athena watched Ares' bronzed shoulders rise and fall in slow and steady paces. His skin was marred, still bruised, but firm and solid – a mat of toned rigidity which often makes her breaths shallow from the slightest touch. An arm was draped above half his face to block the soft sunlight from his eyes.
Ridiculous. She laughed to herself. His chamber was twice the size of hers and offered more luxuries than any other private quarters in the palace. An endless row of weaponry. A bathing pool. He could stash any consort without suspicion yet here he was, yet again over many agains, dominating her space and claiming his co-occupancy. Were that Kings only visited their Queens at the objective of 'duty' but Ares was practically moving in. The growing clutter of his belongings – of heavy armor pieces and capes that reeked with his ego – piled by dozen on corners of her place, says so.
"I knew it."
Athena was woken with the soft grunt from the invader of her bed.
"You fantasize about me like hell."
She rolled her eyes, only then to realize she'd been chewing on a thumb standing where she was watching him. "I was not." She tightened her robe with a deep frown and turned her back to him to conceal the faint blush on her cheek.
"Get up, Ares. We are called for a meeting," Athena began parting the curtains. The room was washed with brighter light, and with it a groan from the King, muffled by the pillows.
"We are?" Ares dug his face on the sheets, "Since bloody when…?"
"Hermes wanted an audience. Would have been last night if someone here hadn't been drinking straight from a barrel and went off arm wrestling with a centaur…"
His laughter rang from the pillows, "If it weren't Dionysus losing a bet – "
"'Wine tasting', Ares. You said it was simply 'wine tasting.'"
"It was! He didn't say we had company…"
Even Athena could not help the faintest smile. If Ares would go about unsupervised with Dionysus, at least there wasn't any corpse by the morning. Last night she had to keep up with his machismo blathers until the alcohol finally took toll on his sleepiness.
She shook her head, "That doesn't excuse you from the day's agenda. Now get up, you big baby."
"Ugh. It's barely daytime…" Ares laid on his back with a grunt. The Queen looked away pointlessly, only moved by the millennium-long reflex of censoring exposed bodies. But if eyes could eat, Athena would have been devoured by scarlet orbs and not a single trace of cell left of her.
She could feel him split in a sickening grin.
"Are you avoiding me?" His voice was slick. So damn shameless.
"If you linger any more there, daytime would soon be noon. And no, I am not avoiding you."
"Then get me out of here," he propped a hand beneath his head, "Big baby needs to feed – ALRIGHT alright…!" Ares fumbled out the bed as soon as the Queen held a throwing knife and motioned to spill his brains on the sheets.
A dusty woven basket landed on the circular platform. The smell of plagued crops filled the hall; particles of chaff floated midair before settling down the surface. Athena wrinkled her nose at the accumulation of debris.
In the closure of the parliamentary hall, they eyed the dead harvest. The withered heads of barley had grown grey and moldy. When Ares fisted a bunch, it turned into dust at his palm and fell like threads on the carpeted floor like ashes.
That was just first of the batch. More baskets of harvest came in but were not any better. The Queen broke a stone-hard and severely disfigured radish. Inside was disease; rot and mildew ate the flesh like leprosy. The wheat were thin and scorched, leeks and celery inedible, not even sparrows could eat from the olives even if they were left on the trees on purpose. She saw Hermes make a face at the wrinkled onions.
"Where are these from, again?" Athena asked the lovely dark-skinned Carme, acknowledging the minor goddess with her effort to travel the ruins to Olympus.
"A portion of many, my Queen," Carme brought a hand to each basket with an accompanying answer, "These, Salamis. The barley from Magoula. If only you could see the fields of corn from Mandra, you'd mistake it for cotton. The leeks, Nea Peramos…"
Athena had thought the list could go on. She was chewing on the wall of her mouth, trying to shove back the gathering vomit in her belly. The smell of dust and decay were making the taste of air sour. A clucking sound of wooden markers brought her attention back. Ares straightened from the table with an equally agitated yet smug face – "She's spreading a plague."
The Queen blinked, trying to comprehend. She studied the markers Ares had been spreading above the wooden platform which was excellently carved with the map of Greece. The markers were concentrated northwest of Athens. Her eyes widened together with a hitch of breath.
Carme approached the etched map as Ares went on, his one hand on a tin pitcher of his favorite drink and the other roaming around the peninsula –
"Salamis. Magoula. All the others," he chugged a mouthful, striding to the other side. "Neighboring towns. Northern, Mandra… western, Perama... it's a widening circumference. And the source…" Ares pointed at the middle of the areas before throwing a look at the Queen.
Athena's voice was stiff – "Eleusis. Demeter's refuge."
Carme's face loosened surprise and tension began to reign. If not for Asceplius pushing the doors, the silence would have hung a little while longer.
"But… why…?" Carme's voice trembled. "Haven't her mortals been offering enough?"
"Who knows," the King shamelessly swigged the last of his wine, "Whatever it is, she's asking for attention. And immediate. Something to do with Poseidon? Didn't those two once…" He snorted.
Athena crossed arms on her chest, her gaze still fixed at the markers. "The last time she plagued the earth with drought…" her voice died down into a mumble before looking up. "Has Persephone returned yet?"
Someone cleared his throat. Their attention fell on Hermes raising a hand beside bowed head.
"Uhm, yes… on that note," the messenger god inhaled, peering through stray bangs, "I am expected to fetch her yesterday from down there… but they said, she… uh… she's already left earlier than expected."
"What…?" the Queen's jaw hung, her surprise most evident than the rest of them, "Since when? Said who? Does Hades know this?"
"Since… almost a moon ago… and Hades does not want to see anyone. Asking around, I've been told…" Hermes wet his lips, receded his voice to a whisper, "…I've been told she received a summoning parchment from here, to which I do not recall handing something over."
Athena felt herself sag on a chair in disbelief. Almost a moon ago. And no single news of this from Hades himself, in fact from anyone from the Underworld at least. Have they been too preoccupied to not notice? Too busy? Too… apathetic…?
And now the earth has to suffer again the growing wrath of a mother who could not think of a less inhuman way to get her message across.
"What do we do…? If this lasts longer, I'm afraid the minor harvest deities could not suffice the growth of food." Carme asked weakly, herself antsy with the occurring pestilence. To which Hermes volunteered, "I could evoke Demeter here…"
"Not a chance." Athena closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, "You know there's more to Demeter than shutting herself from the rest of us. She's spent an enormous force to close all portals to Eleusis since their seclusion. We should do more than send her a bird with this tantrum she's harboring yet again. The only way to reach her is by land. Almost three days ride..."
"If Hermes goes, you think she'd concede?" Ares asked. They looked at each other, answer apparent in the manner they gazed. If Demeter was, in fact calling someone's attention from Oympus, she did not mean to be summoned. She meant to be pacified and not just by a mediator. When Persephone was forced to the Underworld and the earth was afflicted with famine, it was Zeus himself who appeased her.
The Queen slowly stood, knowing well this should not be delayed. "We ride to Eleusis before the sun sinks, full speed. I will make arrangements for further examination on Persephone's disappea – "
"My Queen?"
Asceplius was scratching the back of his head by the time they paid him mind. "I ought to cease Hephaestus' medications by tonight. By doing so, he is set to wake up in a day or two. If I may... suggest one of you stays to fill him in with his memory."
Wouldn't the ex-wife do? Athena paused to immediately dismiss the silent banter. When she looked back at her husband, there was only a sly grin in his face.
"What." Ares shrugged and pointed to the stubble in his cheek, "You think this is the face Hephaestus would like to wake up to? And Styx forbid I might just give him a big wet homecoming kiss…"
Even Asceplius was relieved to hear that, no matter how gross. In fact if he practiced his bluntness, he'd have told directly to prefer Athena to stay by the patient. Or else Hephaestus would have regretted waking to the face of hatred and would have preferred not to wake at all. So it's settled. The Queen stays. There are matters she needed to conduct with the blacksmith too.
The courtyard teemed with hubbub of servants and nymphs alike, making way as the King's royal steed was groomed and pelted until its jet black mane shone. The afternoon sun was still high. Its candescence fell to the Queen as she emerged from the vestibule to see her husband off. Streaks of her hair fell from a thick loose braid studded with beads. When the wind stoked, the shawl that hung from her elbows billowed along with the hem of her floor-length skirts. She stood by the steps and surveyed her full-armored husband engage in an inaudible conversation with a general in training, Enyalius.
How he changed. Not to the point of bipolarity nor benevolence but the fact they come to terms without having to raise a voice or punch a wall was a very great relief. She was spinning into thoughts when Ares caught her by sight and proceeded to climb. He stopped before her, their faces leveled by the step Athena was elevated to. A few deities coming to their direction would turn the other way in intrigue.
The King mocked a pout. "Isn't this the part you cry for me?"
"Idiot." Athena scoffed before smiling, embracing herself in the sheer white gown she was in. "Are you sure to go alone? It's a three-day ride…"
"I'd take that as a bet. If I get back before three days…" his fingers languidly traced her prominent clavicle, "…oh the things I'd do to you…"
Athena swatted his hand away before it could get anywhere closer to her chest. "You practiced a dialogue with Demeter? You know she could sometimes be too… sensitive…"
"Hm… who among them aren't?"
They turned to the whicker of the great stallion below, now prim to the last black hair.
"What else to say?" Athena smiled, reaching out to fix the chainlinks fastened to the draping hood of his cape, "Take care. Stay low. Try not to get into trouble." She rested a palm on his chest and sighed shakily. Public modesty was agonizing. Would that she could at least kiss a cheek if not for the eyes darting at their direction every now and then.
Her face was shaded with unspoken longing, and he sees this.
"What else to say?" Ares narrowed his eyes, a skeptic smile growing from his face. With his gloved hands finding their way around the Queen's waist, he stepped up and pulled her against him lightly – "Say you'll miss me…"
Athena felt the electrifying shudder as his voice melted in her skin. He was doing his witchcraft and she was being pulled into the cauldron. Tartarus.
"Say you'll think of me…" Hand below her jaw, she succumbed to the lips that grazed the curve of her ear, his dense, hot sigh sinking deep and slow – "Say tonight you'll dream of me."
"Ares…" she squeaked, arching her spine to push him gently in the chest. Her face felt hot; tiny pricks of needle riddled across her cheeks. She could not look at him, distressed by the publicity of his flagrance. True enough it was difficult for a single deity to ignore them, and much more difficult not to stare. There were nymphs basking in the nearby garden. Sons and daughters of the gods, the gods themselves. She could spot the muses at the edge of peripheral view, once lazily sprawled across the shaded grass and now their peach eager eyes fervently thrown to the King and Queen not trying to carve each other's guts out. For the first time.
Athena murmured. "They're watching..."
She heard him chuckle. Athena swallowed dry. It was always a bad omen to hear him chuckl –
In a brisk moment she found herself pressed against a pillar, breathless at the palms on her cheeks and the searing mouth over hers… but right there Athena did not know why her senses were as equally responsive to her husband's seduction. Why her eyes closed. How her arms perfectly fit across his back and clung over his shoulders. Why her hand involuntarily fisted his coarse black hair. How she allowed him to take his time invading her lips until a soft moan escaped her throat. It felt luscious… almost divine. This pleasure's curse was a heat wafting beneath her flesh and dissolving every rigid bone in her body.
At the single moment Ares loosened his grip on her from the column, Athena was awakened from the drunken stupor. She gasped and pulled her hand from where it was resting behind his neck, shame washing back and nearly drowning her head deep. But he remained strangely passive and kept her close through the stabile, meaningful hold around her waist and his forehead pressed on hers, their noses touching. And they were just there, just there existing, sharing the seconds of heat before the claws of responsibility tears them apart. How can something so tranquil be so powerful at the same damn time?
"What are you doing?" the Queen whispered. She felt him smile.
"Making it worth the show."
Athena was unable to retort, Ares made sure. He could do more. He could eat her between the thighs right where she stood and right where everyone watched to see her writhe in ecstasy. But he did not want to share the view of her lovely limbs now, would he?
Ares kissed her for the final time, soulful, unlike the brute he was – is. Whatever.
A/N: Sending my warm regards to all; brb to your reviews in the last chapter. Take care...