"What do you mean ? Who else is there ?" his sister's question hit painfully the walls of his mind while bouncing maddeningly back and forth , and he wanted to answer, he really did- desperate as he was to get that load off his chest already- and maybe with a bit of luck even out of his head- but, all of a sudden, his mouth was as dry as Egypt in the midday sun and for some reason, not even that divinely flavoured wine he had been sipping could perform any miracles this time…
" Bro' …..?" she repeated, snapping her fingers at him, slightly irritated by his utterly blank stare " …'You still in there ?". And though the God's eyes widened as if having woken up from a deep trance, one could easily tell that his attention was still elsewhere.
"Ares …." Aphrodite insisted, not bothering to wait for a reply, her voice cracking this time towards the end of her line…." ….Please tell me it isn't ' Thena ….." . She was just dying to find out who that wretched woman was ...
Despite his visibly bad mood, the handsome Olympian just had to chuckle softly and roll his eyes at her assumption. He couldn't help it …it was simply ridiculous.
" No Sis …..Of course it isn't that seven headed Hydra!" he verbally emphasized once he noticed that, completely ignoring the bluntness of his reaction, the ditsy Goddess was still anxiously waiting for an answer. " It might not look like it, but I do have my standards ok ? ..."
"Phewwww!" Dite exclaimed, brutally exhaling all the air her lungs had been holding- to the point of rupturing them ….." I was like literally nervous about this one …"
"Yeah, I bet you were " the War God responded absently, his empty stare only making his sister even more curious- if possible-about this new feminine intruder in his life .
" So…..?" she pushed.
"So ?"
" Come on Ar'! Do I really have to drag it out of you ? Like ....who is she ?!". Her brother could be soooo stubborn at times, she once again said to herself, carefully observing how the few deep lines of a frown contracted on his forehead. And still, this was not the right approach - she was well aware of it...
Instead of a straight answer, the War God's liquid amber eyes met her arctic blue, impatient gaze, and the glass remained poised a half –inch from his mouth as a rather disturbing association with another set of marvellous, beryl moons rushed from the deepest pits of his tormented memory to remind him of all those recent, unpardonably stupid mistakes he had made…Before he knew it, the goblet he had been clutching vanished, and Aphrodite's tender palms were gently cupping his face…..
" Talk to me…..I'm I good listener, you know….." she tried, struggling to repress a faint, compassionate smile that was starting to tug at the corners of her lips.
" I know…..It's not that ….."
"Whatever it is, Ares….you can trust me! I wont't tell a soul, I promise!" she encouraged, and this time, after shortly kissing her warm palms, the son of Zeus slowly guided her hands to his temples .
Mystified by his actions, the blonde Goddess waited patiently for some sort of a continuation, totally oblivious to the fact that her brother was right about to do something that no Olympian God had ever dared do before …
"As I said…..it's a long story …And in order for you to be able to help me, you first need to understand …"
" We have all the time in the world, Ar…." she hastily replied, more than ready to hear all about the juicy details of his private life.
The War God gasped. She still didn't get it.
" I want you to read my aura . Get into my mind….access my memories….And then, if you still feel like it, we can talk about it ….." he bluntly articulated, adding a bit more pressure on her hands as if urging her to do it …..
Needless to say, Aphrodite was puzzled. Not in a million years had she expected that kind of answer. Not from him….Not from anyone for that matter…..Gods valued their privacy enormously you see, and a free pass to someone's most hidden corners of the mind was almost suicidal in most cases- for it involved exposing their every weakness, their every fear- each and every moment that had meant something to them emerging from the very depths of their being into the light….Basically one could easily become a puppet into the other person's hands , for there were no more barriers to stop them from accessing whatever it was that they needed to know …Not to mention the pain , the tension , the exhaustion that was about to follow…..
"Are you…sure ?" Dite inquired on an almost terrified note, instinctively trying to pull away from him , but the War God's firm hold, instantly turned into a vicious grip . She wasn't going anywhere and he was making it crystal clear for her.
" It's ok .." he calmly stated , flashing her his trademark , brilliant smile . " Now you'll get to be in my head in more ways than one …." he joked, and they both laughed nervously at the implications of it…
" Well..what do I have to do …exactly ? "
" Nothing really ….I'll guide you to the first moment I met her, and from there, you'll just have to follow the bread crumbs…Easy peasy lemon squeezy "
"If you say so ….." she mumbled under her breath, biting her lips nervously, not really excited by the perspective of having this amount of power over him. ….She was smart enough to know that power always came with a price …And maybe this was a price she wasn't willing to pay…..
" Are you ready ?"
Once she nodded her reluctant acceptance, before she could blink once, the Love Goddess's aura combined with the War God's and in no time, she got sucked into his disturbingly violent mind through a bloody vortex on the walls of which faces blended with places, words, actions and thoughts, in such a perfectly connected way that she couldn't possibly hold back that gasp of surprise that left her lips…
As expected, she landed on a battlefield of course, and in between the long gone and the wounded , half choking in a pool of dark crimson blood- the direct result of a still ongoing mayhem- closer to death than he had ever been before, laid her beloved brother, his face the colour of a burial shroud.