For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?

By Asso

Chapter Twelve

Eyes

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Hera pulled herself together. She straightened her shoulders and looked sternly at her husband.

With proud and dignified frown.

But even with a tiny hint of malice, in truth.

"How will you do, husband?"

Zeus scowled in incomprehension. "How will I do to do what, wife?"

Hera's eyes smiled mischievously.

"All the mess that passed over us, Zeus... Let's forget Humans, if you want. They know that they can not be able to do anything else but merely bow their heads under the dark forces that rule the world. Not all of them, to be honest, but almost all. They know that for them it is fruitless to ask questions they can not be answered. But our race brothers... the other gods... along with all the myriad of demigods and almost gods... They too have witnessed the mayhem just occurred and they... well, they will want surely to know. And to whom will they turn to know... "The mischievous gleam in Hera's eyes shone more evidently."... my wise husband and lord?"

Zeus's frown became more than a frown.

Damn!

Being caught out in that way! As a rookie god!

Eh sure. Because his wife had hit the mark. He was Zeus. The lord of everything and everyone. How... how could it ever be possible that, if the chaos that had just occurred, had not been caused by him himself, he could not know what it was due to? Impossible! He had to know! He was Zeus!

But ... for Cronus' bowels! ... how could he ever do to reveal the cause of what happened? That the cause was Hades? That his dark brother had stolen Persephone - his beloved daughter! - from her world? From her mother, without this one knowing anything? To make her his own? Or, at leas, to try to do so? Or how could he, Zeus, ever say that he didn't know a fucking anything? Oh, but what a splendid impression on the part of the Lord of Gods! Or, worse yet, how could he do to say that he knew exactly what had happened and... and that he was consenting? Or, if not exactly consenting, unable to oppose? Or, even worse, at least willing to not oppose? Damn! Damn! DAMN! And now? How would he do to get out of all that?

Sure. He could still say that he was Zeus and that this was quite sufficient. His willingness towered over everyone and everything.

But... well, yes... well ... not that his prestige would have gained a lot in this way. And, as far as he couldn't care less ... well ... it was not something he liked very much.

And, icing on the cake, his wife! She knew everything! He himself, the fool he had been, had revealed everything to her!

And she... oh, damn, what better way to take revenge on all his betrayals - including and above all, the one perpetrated with Demeter - than that to put him up to ridicule, revealing or even merely by letting be understood that, at the base of everything, there was him? That he had consented Persephone being swallowed into the darkness of Hades? Eh sure, because surely the disappearance of Persephone would not have gone unnoticed and ... and if, the moment he would be asked for some explanation about, his wife had started to... sing? At the top of her lungs or in soft tones, this didn't matter a bugger all!

This, in fact, was the biggest dilemma. The problem to which he had to find immediate solution.

And, of course, a simple order would not have been enough.

His wife was smart.

She knew how to do things without being caught out!

Damn! Double damn! Triple damn!

Zeus' eyes looked at his wife almost viciously.

For Titans' tripe! Of course, it was not easy for her to live with him, he had to admit it, though she knew well what she was going to face the day she had agreed to marry him. All in all, she was simply paying for her own ambition!

But... damn, how much she was capable of making him pay dearly the price of his betrayals!

And at that moment - strangely, bizarrely - a weird thought flashed in Zeus' mind.

But maybe... maybe that was why he had wanted her. What other goddess could have ever stood up to him? And... but yes... let's say it... what other goddess could he have ever loved? In... in the true sense of the term?

And that thought... that weird thought... brought with it the solution of his dilemma.

Because sometimes it happens just like that. The solution you do not expect comes in tow of something you do not expect.

Like that bizarre thought.

Zeus smiled mischievously.

"How much I love you, my wife!"

Hera was totally taken in surprise.

"What?"

"But sure, you're well aware of that!"

"I am…?"

"Betrayals, lies, subterfuge... yes, yes, all true, all true, I admit it and, after all, Hera, all this makes me... let's face it, makes me even bigger and more powerful, in the eyes of the world. My countless conquests. Because even in this the king of the gods must prove to be superior to everyone. "

"Zeus!"

"But, my wife, think about it." And Zeus's smile became sly and sweet at the same time. "I, always, come back to you."

Hera struggled to articulate the words.

"Yes ... but ... you ... I ..."

"And you know the why, my beloved wife."

Her eyes wide open, Hera was barely able to stutter "I kn… know?"

"Of course, you know it, because you know perfectly well that I am in love with you!"

Hera looked at Zeus as one could look at a pink elephant.

"Hu... husband..."

"Exactly! Husband! Your husband!"

Impetuously, Zeus grabbed Hera's hands and squeezed them, firmly but gently.

"Hera, my wife, my heart is yours, and you know it."

Zeus's voice was sweet and persuasive. Then it became serious, while his eyes fixed those of his wife intensely.

"This is why I revealed everything to you regarding the pact between me and Hades."

Zeus's gaze grew deadly grave. Solemn.

"Because I know that I can trust you just as a husband can trust the wife he loves."

Zeus brought closer his face to Hera's. His lips caressed hers.

On her lips, he whispered.

"I know well that never you will betray this secret."

And Hera fell into Zeus' trap.

Consenting and aware, she fell headlong into it.

Because, in reality, he did not lie.

In his way… he loved her.

And because...

Hera tasted the flavour of her husband's lips on hers. Savoured their fullness. And their strength.

Because... because...

Because his charm bewitched her!

It had always been like that!

And even now it was like that!

Oh, it was incredible, it was monstrous, thinking about it, but she could, she was able to understand all the females who had fallen prey to that charm! How could it be possible to resist?

And how could she, now, resist his unspoken request? The request he, softly and bewitchingly, had murmured without words on her lips?

She... would not say anything. To no one.

The pact that her husband had made with Hades would remain a secret to everyone.

And... and when the others would come to seek for explanation about the ruckus that was unleashed and, obviously, about Persephone's disappearance too, Demeter as first, she would not reveal anything.

Zeus, her husband, could count on her silence.

Because that was what he wanted.

Being able to count on her silence.

And...

Hera turned her face away from her husband's, softly released her hands from his and stepped back so as to be able to watch him well in the face.

And so it would have been.

Hera nodded, almost resignedly.

And whispered.

"I will not say anything, husband." She smiled, a little sadly. "You can trust me."

Zeus smiled at that murmured words.

A smile of victory.

But, after all ... yes!... at the end, even a smile of love.

And, at that moment, another bizarre thought crossed his mind in a flash.

He... well, he had love. His wife's love. Deserved or undeserved that this was. He knew love.

Hades... no. He did not know love.

And he wanted to try to get to know it.

He would never succeed, because...

For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?

But why not consent to his crazy attempt?

He had chosen well. Yes, he had chosen well.

Being the king of the gods also meant being magnanimous.

And he had shown himself magnanimous towards Hades.

And, two birds with one stone, he had in this way also avoided a fratricidal and ruinous war.

Extremely dangerous.

And, to crown it all - knowing Hades' iron conduct and stone uprightness, such that his dark brother never would recant what promised - in his heart he knew that in the end Persephone would return, and untouched, furthermore. Because...

For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?

Destiny this time would have to eat its verdict.

Because...

For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?

In the middle of nowhere, wrapped in nothingness, standing in nothingness, Persephone raised her head.

She looked at the black helmet behind which the face lurked of the one whose voice, grave and low, had spoken.

She looked past the slits behind which his eyes hid.

Her bright, crystalline green eyes looked at those other eyes.

Those two deep wells made of nothing.

Those two forlorn eyes.

Persephone looked at those two otherworldly... fascinating... eyes.

End of Chapter Twelve

TBC

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Eyes.

Souls.