When Lily was a child, her father would tell her the story of how she was born. In the Last War of the Pantheon, a thousand years before she was born, Loras had been a young god, newly anointed as the Lord of Light, straining for a glimpse of the horizon in the hours before battle. He looked up into the rosy sky and saw her mother, Acadia, carrying the spring solstice over a new day.
He'd beckoned her over and asked her to bless him before the battle began. Her mother responded with a raised brow and told him to win for their pantheon and only then would she bless him. That day, Albus the Wise toppled their fore-fathers, securing the rise of their new pantheon.
Following the end of the war, Loras had sought Acadia in the Spring Court, known as the lands of endless spring, won her blessing. A thousand spring solstices later, Acadia gave birth and the fates had chorused her name across the lands: Lily. She was raised in the lands of endless spring and all was well.
The mortals knew this story.
It was the only story they knew of her.
21 years later, and still, this was the only story they knew of her.
And Lily was sick of it.
In the days leading to the Winter Solstice, Lily the Lovely, as her mother adoringly called her, found herself beckoning woodland creatures to their dens for the long winter ahead. While she had never left the lands of endless spring, she did have just enough power in the mortal world to influence small creatures even from afar.
"Come on," she said with a smile, watching as a hive of bees took their rest. "You're almost asleep now."
Before she could coax the bees into their deep slumber, a voice shouted her name over the glen, "Lily!"
Lily frowned as the image before her, of a mortal forest, rippled and the bees immediately broke from their light sleep, buzzing from the hive. She sighed with frustration, looking up, and seeing as a lithe form sprang at her. As summer-sky blue eyes locked with her own, recognition flared in Lily's mind.
"Marlene?" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
Her friend pulled back, with a wide grin. Marlene was born from the god of summer, letting out a deep laugh that landed on a passing breeze. Marlene tumbled out from the melding of the two, a goddess, like herself, but with hundreds of siblings, all staking claims to the powers of summer. Marlene had grappled with her brothers for control of summer storms, coming away victorious with a small scar by her chin.
"I was passing through the mortal plane" Marlene responded, leaning back to look at her. "When I saw your mother there and thought this would be the perfect chance for a prison break."
Lily rolled her eyes at Marlene's statement.
"I'm not trapped here."
Marlene raised a brow and Lily bit her tongue. She loved the lands of endless spring. Here, the sun was always warm, a loving embrace on her skin. Here, the flowers were forever in bloom, the rich scent drowning her.
But after 21 years of endless spring, Lily had had her fill.
In fact, after seventeen years of endless spring, she'd had her fill. Marlene had been sent to the Spring court as an ambassador for her father when Lily was sixteen, staying for a year and asking Lily to return with her for a summer in the bustle of Summer Court. But Acadia had refused, exclaiming she was too young and still not settled into her immortality yet.
"You're right," Marlene scoffed. "I forgot the part where you were willing to stay here."
"My mother would worry if I left," Lily replied. She'd begged her mother four years ago, but Acadia had come to tears during their fight and summoned her father for one of his few visits. Loras had looked at her with such disappointment that Lily had not asked to leave in the subsequent four years.
"Lovely hear me out— the Winter solstice starts tomorrow and Caradoc is ensuring that the winter court has the best celebrations of the year!"
"You say that about every court," Lily replied, with a smile. Marlene shook her head and laughed.
"Come on Lovely— one night from spring! Your mother is going to be gone all night making sure all the animals are asleep and the seeds are resting for the season. She won't notice and I'll have you back by dawn."
"I haven't settled yet Mar," Lily answered. "It's dangerous out there."
"I'd been to every court before I'd settled!" Marlene snapped. "Come on Lily, your mother kept you from summer four years ago don't waste this night. You don't know when you'll settle."
Settling was the topic of all Lily's worries. All immortal beings settled into their immortality at some point in the average mortal lifetime; when that happened was up to the fates. Most settled in their second or third decades, but Lily knew a group of ancient crones who governed spring rainstorms and worried that she may have decades before her mother would let her leave.
"You know I'm right," Marlene said victoriously. "Come on— we can catch a breeze through the woods between Winter and Spring!"
"I've never been that far up north," Lily answered.
"Where's your sense of adventure?"
Lily looked at the grounds around her. The flowers and plants in constant bloom. The young woodland animals. The everlasting sun.
Nothing had changed.
Her life had never changed.
It was time for a change.
She looked at Marlene, catching the beautiful gleam in her friend's eyes and nodded.
"I'll come," she declared, with a smile.
The sun was setting as Lily and Marlene reached Hiems, the city of ice at the heart of the Winter Court. She'd spent the previous hour flying through a breeze Marlene summoned one of her many younger sisters to create. They'd landed at the epicenter of Winter, Lily soon realizing that her thin chiton was not equipped for the court.
"What is this Marlene?" she asked, staring at her arms as the skin prickled up. Marlene laughed warmly, wrapping her arm over Lily's shoulders and guiding her into Hiems.
"It's the cold Lovely!" she declared with a ripe smile. "Let's get you a proper dress for tonight."
She'd never seen a city before. The Spring Court was filled with hamlets and woods, where immortals took their rest. In Hiems, the people bustled around. Lily blinked at the sight of a large white bear patrolling.
"What is that?"
Marlene looked at the bear and shrugged.
"Security— Caradoc's got a sense of humor at least."
"Why aren't they hibernating?"
"It's winter- they're the spirits of winter," Marlene replied, guiding her into a new street. Around them, music played, rippling across sleek buildings and ice arches. Lily could see a frozen river, with children skating on the ice nearby. "We're going to be late. You can gawk later."
Her head was spinning as Marlene led her into a store where a nymph with light blue skin showed them to a rack of dresses.
"Marlene these are rather thin too."
"Trust me you won't feel a thing— winter magic," Marlene said, extending a dress to her. Lily took the dress, following a nymph to a room with a curtain for privacy.
"We don't get many of your type."
"Goddesses?
The nymph smiled.
"Spring Court," she clarified, shutting the curtain. Lily frowned at that, turning and pulling her chiton off and slipping the dress on. It was like nothing she'd worn before; most of her outfits consisted of loose dresses, fit for growing plants, and meandering with animals. The dress was a tightly-fitted green fabric that felt so smooth to touch. It was bright enough to match her eyes and she tugged at the dress, frowning at the low front and even lower back.
She didn't look like herself.
The dress revealed a woman's body that Lily hardly knew she had and brought out the deep color of her long red hair. It even made the dusting of golden-lit freckles on her face stand out.
The curtain ripped open and she whirled around as Marlene nodded in approval.
"You look like a proper goddess now," she declared. "Thank Ambrosia you've finally grown into that chest."
"Marlene this dress doesn't fit," Lily said puzzled.
"Trust me it's supposed to look like that."
"How will I be warm in this?"
"It's heated," Marlene answered, ushering her out to the nymph. "We'll take mine and hers."
"I have no money," Lily said, flushing slightly. In spring currency was not a thing, life was more communal there.
"Think of it as a gift from my father's endless treasury," Marlene drawled, paying the nymph and guiding her out. The sunset was violet overhead as the pair continued through the city.
"Where are we going?" she asked, dodging a pair of running children.
"Caradoc has a party at his palace's winter ballroom every year," Marlene explained. "And we have the tickets."
She marveled at the sights before her. She watched as two frozen water nymphs lounged before a fountain, looking so different from the tanned ones in the Spring Court. Buildings rose around them and in the distance, she could see mountains that glittered like diamonds against the sky. It was beautiful, perhaps for being the opposite of the forever bright Spring Court.
They reached a glass and ice palace, jutting from a giant ice structure that seeped the river's frozen flow from one side. Lily could see men at the door guarding it. Around her, immortals of all types bustled in. Some were evidently of the winter court, but others had the bronzed skin of the summer court and the looks of many other celestial lands Lily had never been to. Many wore masks, made of endless things: fire, wind, and one seemingly of lightening.
Marlene brought her into line, fixing her own hair, a deep mess of blonde curls that looked forever windswept.
"You're playing my sister Margo tonight," she said, turning to Lily and casting a glamor around her face and hair. Lily felt the clouds settle at her cheekbones and around her eyes. "She's some minor goddess of summer clouds."
"Doesn't that fall into your domain," Lily said, amused at Marlene's dismissive tone towards her siblings.
"Sometimes we have to share— you wouldn't know only child and all."
They reached the front of the palace door, Marlene flashing something in her hand at the men before the doors. Lily struggled not to stare at one made entirely from ice. She walked with Marlene inside and gaped at the seemingly endless woods before them.
"Caradoc's infinite woods," Marlene said with a knowing look. "It's glorious— easy to get lost in and never come out. There's a tracking charm on that mask— don't take it off and I'll be able to find you if we get separated."
"How is this forest inside this palace?"
"Winter magic," Marlene laughed, as they walked into the forest of frozen trees, covered in lights. Around them, immortal beings mingled into clearings and glens within the forest, drinking from diamond chalices and dancing as music echoed around. Lily looked up watching as snow fell from the sky.
"I've never seen snow before," she said dumbfounded, trying to touch one as it turned to water on her hand.
"I'm not hearing a thank you yet," Marlene teased. Lily smiled at her, following her into one of the clearings and accepting a glass that Marlene grabbed.
"Be careful of this stuff— Borean wine can be really potent," Marlene warned before knocking her entire glass back and grinning. She threw it to the ground as it exploded into a bed of small ice. "More!"
Lily took a sip and joined Marlene in the music and madness around them. Time seemed to slip away as she drank more, joining Marlene in a dancing circle with a group of winter knights. She drank another glass and Marlene dragged her into a new glen. Lily's night fell into revelry when she found herself in a glen occupied by two thrones at the back and an icy clearing before. She'd lost Marlene but was giddy, dancing with a group of winter goddesses. Lily was spun by one who laughed with joy and her head sang as she tipped it back to stare at the visible night sky through the enchanted ceiling.
She could see the stars and brought her head down turning and locking eyes with someone.
The crowd of dancing, beautiful immortals around her blurred away and the music melted as time warped.
The eyes meeting her own seemed to shift, melting from gold into green and slipping through the space between them. Lily felt her body sway as she blinked and felt the presence of the eyes' owner.
He was powerful. She could feel his power smack into the entire glen as the beings around her froze, washed in that strength. It was an old power, akin to the intensity she felt when her father came to visit.
She then saw him.
A face built regally— a face that mortals and immortals alike bowed to. He was seemingly but taut with muscle beneath light armor that did nothing to take away from the chaotic black hair that fell around his forehead.
She'd never seen a god— certainly, he couldn't just be a lower immortal— like him before. Lily blinked as that power moved closer to her and saw that he was walking towards her. She suddenly became aware of those around her, who'd stopped singing, drinking, and dancing to stare at the god as well.
Her breaths became lighter as he neared, finally stopping before her. Around her people dipped into bows, whispering words she couldn't hear as she stared at him. Up close, he was taller than she'd thought, enough that she had to tilt her head up to meet his eyes as he looked down at her. Up close, she fought the urge to buckle at the knees in a bow.
He was surely of the Pantheon, perhaps of even the original crop of gods to fight in the Last War of the Pantheon.
"Who are you?" he asked, voice deep and rich like the sound of the largest river in the Spring Court. She blinked at him, feeling words come out as she recalled Marlene's alibi.
"Margo," she blurted. "Margo of the Summer Court."
He stared at her before smiling, a cruel smile that made her shiver.
"You think to deceive me with that mask?" he drawled, snapping his fingers at her face. Immediately, the mask collapsed into a mist, disappearing as his hand moved to her face. She felt heat pool from his hand to her cheeks and a flush crawled up her neck to them. His eyes darkened, dipping to the blush moving. "Now tell me who you really are?"
"Why?" she asked, trying to shake off the reverie that came over her.
"Why?" he repeated, sounding almost shocked. "Do you know who you speak to?"
She continued to stare at him, confusion spilling from her face as he continued to angle her face up. He looked at her, shock finally etching onto his expression.
"I am James, Lord of War," he declared, watching as recognition sprang across her face. "And you are mine."
Author's note:
somewhat retelling of Hades and Peresphone. Hopefully multi-chaptered.