Forgotten
Summary*
She was not cruel. She was not evil. Her only fault was not even her own. She was the daughter of a Titan. Not an ordinary one. She was the daughter of their general. She serves an unjust punishment in the prison she had once called home. Doomed to live in a land no man finds twice, with no company but her own. She is Calypso, the enchantress, and she lives alone, forgotten.
All she wanted after all these years was company. No. Not even her freedom. Just somebody to talk to. There was a time when she had been bitter, and later, a time when she had hoped. Now, she knew that such fanciful thoughts would never come to pass. She had been gifted with everything one could have wished for- beauty, luxury, peace and why, she possessed magic too, but what she could never have was what she would always want. She was doomed to fall in love every time, only to be deprived of it, for all these men had a strong sense of duty and loyalty. Why couldn't she have been like any mortal, accepted by those around her? Every day in her life was a rejection. She was immortal, thus even death had rejected her. She was a peaceful soul, and this heart her to no end. Why was she being punished, when her only fault was being the daughter of the enemy general? She had sided with him once, millennia ago, as any child is bound to. Zoë, her half-sister, had been forgiven, but unlike Calypso, she had forsaken her family for a man who'd ultimately stabbed her in the back. Why then, was she the one to suffer?
Half the world had lived in blissful ignorance of her existence. The rest half either feared her, hated her, or both. She had thought that it would all change for good when she met Odysseus, stranded as he was, on her island. She had still been naïve, and believed that he had fallen for her just the way she had for him. She had held him a willing captive for months, which gradually turned to years. Not once had he openly refused her. He had heartlessly led her on. He had ruthlessly allowed her to hope for the life she could only dream of, but never have. When at last the raft arrived for him, she had believed with every fibre of her being that he would stay with her in a bliss that no one else could ever offer. She should have known. He was pledged to another. Penelope was her name. She was the queen of his kingdom and his heart, and would always be. She waited long for her husband's arrival, tending to her infant son. Calypso could understand the woman. She would not allow her to face the same cruel fate, awaiting one who would never come. She paid a needless price, but no amount of resentment would allow her condemn Penelope to the same fate with a clean conscience. She would let the man go, if only a little while later, but so ruthless were the gods that even that mercy was not to be granted to her. He left her without a second thought, with no remorse or hesitation. He gathered the supplies she had set out for him, boarded the raft and sailed away as the waves took him without looking back even once. Her tearful gaze followed him till he was but a speck on the horizon, still hurting from a painful wound that had been reopened by his apathetic rejection.
Many a millennia later, when Perseus Jackson landed on Ogygia, burnt and bruised, she had promised herself that she would not give her heart away once more only to have it broken. She quietly tended to him as he muttered in delirium. Annabeth seemed to be a frequent part of it. From the way he spoke her name, she could only guess that the two of them were together. Day by day she would work her magic upon him, willing the wounds to heal, watching him in his restless sleep. When at long last he awoke, they spoke of simple things. Despite herself, she could not help but watch in amusement as he took in his surroundings with childish fascination once he had overcome his weariness. Not long after, Hephaestus had paid them a visit. He had told Percy what he'd wanted to hear and learn but it was then that Calypso realised something. There had never been a way around her curse. Once more her affections had been lost to the boy who had found her, and she could do nothing about it but face it sadly as fate took its course. Thus, she was not entirely surprised when Percy told her that he must leave to save his camp from annihilation. Upon his parting, she had gifted him a bit of her moonlace as a memory, and he had promisd that he would try and help her anyway he could,and with that,he was gone. She had heard of the promise he'd extracted from the gods in place of the immortality that was offered. She waited, and yet no help came, and once again, hope turned into resentment. In a minute of weakness she had wished her fate upon the girl Annabeth whom he loved so. If only she had known the price they would pay for it. She had wished many times more to undo the harm she could have done unwittingly, but a curse once placed can never be revoked, only altered. Every hero had to return to save either his home, or himself. If each hero was spent thus, who would save her?
She had heard tidings of the war that was waiting to rage. No. It wasn't the Titans anymore. It was a more sturdy and bloodthirsty race. The Giants had awoken. She'd had a few annoying visits from her grandmother, Gaia, but besides that, things had been the same as ever. She was her own company, and that would not change anytime soon. She thought she would finally lose it when a scrawny boy with a rather annoying sense of humour. She had found it beyond cruel that the gods were willing to mock her so, but the coming days had proven her wrong. She had once tolerated his presence, and helped him with all the repair work he seemed to be doing. At times, she would feel his gaze upon her, and she could only dejectedly accept the fact that she looked forward to it. Unlike the others, he had always wanted to go back home, but he had also been the only one to treat her well. Percy had been kind, but he had broken a promise. Calypso had started hoping that the raft would never appear,although she would never admit it out loud. In fact, she told him quite the contrary. It was her way of defending them both. It was his final act that broke the barriers down though. He had sworn upon the River Styx that he would come back for her, and even as the raft appeared, she had seen the gleam in his eyes tinged with the sorrow of what could only be unreciprocated love. The way his face lit up when she kissed him was proof enough, but she was no fool to dare hope that he would return. His oath would kill the one person who had dared to love her as she did, and she would continue living on the island unto eternity.
Forgotten, on a land that no man finds twice.
A/N: I'd received an anonymous review asking why Calypso blames Percy Jackson when he'd been suffering with amnesia and was at no fault at all. I thought it will be helpful if I put in here that it was not my idea, but rather in the book itself,mentioned by the arai in Tartarus when Annabeth suffers under Calypso's curse, when she goes blind, and always out of Percy's reach. I thank whoever it was who had reviewed, for bringing this point to my attention.