Of Regrets and Heated Discussions
"As I am a lofty princess, so my father is
A lofty king, accomplished in all kingly subtilties,
Holding in his strong right hand world-kingdoms' balances.
He has quarrelled with his neighbors, he has scourged his foes;
Vassal counts and princes follow where his pennon goes,
Long-descended valiant lords whom the vulture knows,
On whose track the vulture swoops, when they ride in state
To break the strength of armies and topple down the great:
Each of these my courteous servant, none of these my mate.
My father counting up his strength sets down with equal pen
So many head of cattle, head of horses, head of men;
These for slaughter, these for labor, with the how and when.
Once it came into my heart and whelmed me like a flood,
That these too are men and women, human flesh and blood;
Men with hearts and men with souls, though trodden down like mud."
- A Royal Princess by Christina Rossetti
The following morning, Barak woke up to find himself having the hangover of the century.
The night before was only a vague memory, a blurry trail of uncertain events. But one thing he did remember was the auburn-haired beauty in his embrace. At one point, he had lost the beauty in question during his hazy night and that was what he did regret.
Well, let's make it the second thing he was starting to regret. As he went through the pockets of his tunic, he noticed that the religious symbol he had gotten from Hades had also gone missing.
"Well, that's just great," Barak muttered to himself, rubbing his face with his hands. Making the God of Death angry at himself was certainly a memorable start for his day.
Well, there wasn't much he could do.
"Hades, summoning Hades!" he bellowed and with a poof, the God in question appeared before him.
"Oy, you reek SO BAD that even I am starting to get a hangover," annoyed God complained, making a face.
"Well, sorry about that, but my reasons are important. The symbol you gave me is missing," Barak replied, remaining admiringly cool and collected.
"I went to seek your help because of the endless stream of screw ups of my own minions. This does not raise my trust concerning your abilities," Hades gritted his teeth together, ready to lose his temper.
"Yeah, I get it, I'm sorry. Just let me try once more?" Barak offered calmly.
"You know, I do not have an endless supply of religious memorabilia. Especially of others deities besides moí. Just don't go losing this one, okay?" Hades grumbled as another symbol appeared to his hand and he handed it over to Barak.
"Oh, I didn't lose it. I'm pretty sure this chick took it from me," Barak corrected and this piece of information peaked Hades' interest.
"What chick?" Hades asked as he turned to look at the man.
"I met her at the tavern. Long auburn hair, violet eyes, a body curved like an amphora…" Barak recollected his memories, a small smile appearing at his lips as he thought of her.
"Oh, that's just great. That's Meg. Oh my sweet little Nutmeg, always getting involved. And not alone, would be my best guess," Hades would recognize that description anywhere.
"You know her?" Barak seemed only mildly surprised.
"Better than you would ever guess. Well, this is exactly what we needed. So Meg and Wonderboy are on our tail," Hades groaned, rubbing his temples. Then again, this was an useful piece of information: now he at least knew that they were following his tracks.
"Well, no matter: I can handle this. Just another bump on the road. Just make sure you do keep your end of this bargain. Go find Zenia, before you lose that thing as well," Hades reminded the mortal before he disappeared.
He needed to contemplate on this newest turn of the events. He could use this to his advantage, he was sure of it.
He just needed to figure out how.
That same morning Meg and Hercules had headed over to the palace, to talk to Meg's father about the information they had gathered during the previous night. Creon however was not inclined to believe what they were telling him. And Meg was not about to let the matter go.
"You do understand how fantastical this all sounds, don't you, Megara dear? And you gathered this from a seer, you say? You know how I feel about them after that affair Tiresias," Creon finally sighed out heavily, rubbing his temples with his fingers.
"Cassandra is a very good friend of Hercules, I do trust her word. And if you listened to what we told you, we have multiple sources of information!" Meg pointed out heatedly. Hercules placed a his hand to her shoulder, trying his best to calm her down.
"My dear, most of what you told me sounded much like tall tales and some childish fabrication," Creon simply brushed it off, sharing a meaningful look of disbelief with his advisors.
"And even if what you say is true, then those cultists of Cybele won't probably cause any trouble. You said this man you met was supposed to be their leader, but now they won't most likely follow him?" the king carried on.
"Oh yeah, maybe not them, but we have still the army of Dead coming for us!" Meg crossed her arms at her chest, giving her father a jaded look.
"We'll stay inside the palace and we'll stay safe," the king head-strongly told, ignoring the facts.
"Then the people inside the palace will be saved, but what about the common people in the city?" Meg pointed out.
"In war, there are always casualties," the king avoided her question.
"Your Highness, these are no ordinary soldiers, they are already dead. This means they can't be slowed down or even killed. The death rates will be sky-rocketing," Hercules calmly pointed out.
"I'll rule over what will be left of my people," the king stubbornly told.
"Then you'll be ruling over a graveyard! Our city-state will fall first and then all the other cities will follow. The whole Hellenic world might collapse because of this and you simply suggest that we just stay inside and wait it all to pass? That is madness!" Meg furiously demanded an answer form her father.
During their talk, Creon's temper had been growing shorter by each passing moment. During her absence, he had forgotten what a handful his eldest daughter could prove to be at times. After she kept pushing and questioning his authority, king Creon was at the moment so mad that he was fuming after his daughter had been disrespecting his opinions the whole afternoon.
"I am the king and you do as I say! You dare to talk against your king and your own father?" He all but yelled at Meg.
"I will continue to do so, if you continue making irrational decisions!" Meg yelled back at him. Hercules noticed the anxious looks exchanged between the royal advisors: all in the room could see that this was heading for a disaster.
"I am the king, my decisions are for the better of our people!" Creon moved closer to his daughter.
"That doesn't mean your decisions are correct! Most of our people will end up dead if we see through your plan!" Meg placed her hands on her hips.
Creon could feel his temper boiling. How could this insolent little girl tell him how to rule over his own city-state after abandoning all of them for years? What did she know of hard decisions and gnawing guilt that came afterwards?
Before he could reflect on his actions, Creon rose his hand as if to hit his daughter, but before he could do that, he felt a hard grip on his hand.
Hercules had moved closer and as he saw what Creon was about to do, he stepped in, taking a firm grip of his hand.
"Don't. Nobody touches her," he growled at king Creon.
"She's my daughter," king Creon replied, unfazed.
"I don't care. Nobody has the right to harm her, not even you," Hercules replied, unmoved.
Meg sighed out, slightly backing away from her father. This wasn't the first time her father rose his hand against her. But it was something new to have somebody on her side who would stand up for her.
"Fine, what do you propose then, hero?" king Creon snapped at him.
"That we gather an army and send it out against the Dead. We may win more time so the women and the children may escape through the tunnels and head straight to the mountains," Hercules proposed.
"And I suppose you're willing to lead this army?" the king impatiently asked.
"Of course," Hercules solemnly replied.
"So be it," the king barked as he left the room, obviously still fuming mad.
Meg also headed outside, feeling claustrophobic in her childhood home, all the unpleasant memories once again surfacing. She felt as if the walls were closing in on her.
She collapsed to the stone pavement by a fountain, rubbing her temples tiredly, much like her father had done only few moments ago.
She wasn't surprised to notice that Hercules had followed her outside and sat next to her on stone bench.
"Well, that went great. Even better than I imagined," Meg sardonically told him.
"Yeah," Hercules simply agreed.
After a moment of silence, Hercules asked her quietly as he placed his hand gently on her knee: "This wasn't the first time he raised his fist against you?"
"No," Meg quietly breathed out, still looking at the fountain with a forlorn look on her face.
Hercules also sighed. From Meg's reaction, he had suspected as much, but he didn't want to believe it. Who could do such a thing to his own daughter?
"Meg, I'm so sorry to hear that."
"It's not your place to apologize for him. But thanks for standing up for me," Meg leaned against him, brushing her fingers against his hand.
"Meg, I'll be on your side. Always. You can count on it," He gently replied, wrapping his hand around her shoulder.
Meg closed her eyes, enjoying the comfort of his touch. It felt so good to know that she wouldn't have to feel as alone as she felt while growing up. She prayed that not even this up-coming war would be able to separate them.
-A/N: Hello again, here's a new chapter for you! What is Hades up to? And Creon isn't showing his best sides, don't you agree? So there are few kinks I need to figure out with this story, but fingers crossed I'll have more time during the summer to write. And I'm still thinking about new ideas to write down, so let's hope I'll have time to do that!
There's has been quite a lot going on in my life lately. For example, we decided to move to a new, bigger apartment next month, which in itself is great, but I just hate moving. So yeah, lots of things going on. But I promise, I'll try my best to keep up with the updates!
Shout-out to the reviewers:
- Disneylove12: I'm glad you enjoyed it, I enjoyed writing it as well! Once again, thanks so much for your kind words, they truly warm my heart!
- Bad Jimmy06: Happy to hear that, and also thanks for reviewing my other fic! Kudos to you!