Chapter 2
Angel, I prayed
Prayed to you for vengeance…
She hides in the shadow and watches as he lights up the fire and arranges the flaming torches around a piece of marble carefully shrouded in muslin. She is curious about his parting statement, one which he refused to explain before he sent her inside to rest for the night after extracting a promise that she wouldn't seek him out in the shadows.
He seems feverish in his haste. He arranges the sharp carving tools in front of him before lifting the veil from a partially carved face.
It's her.
She bites her lips to stifle the sound of her desperate happiness and confusion. He gently caresses the smooth cheeks and closed eyelids.
'Elena…'
There is so much longing and pain in the way he utters her name that she almost finds it soothing. He remembers. He has to. No man longs for a woman whom he can't recall. Soon, the sound of chisel striking the marble is a lullaby that lulls her into sleep.
Hiding behind the door of the room where he continues to struggle with the unyielding stone, she closes her eyes in peace and dreams about Olympus…
The very moments that her eyes behold the splendor of the golden palace in the sky, she knows that she is in Apollo's domain. It's not morning yet. Soon, he will make his way in the sky on his chariot, accompanied by Eos, bringing light to the mortals who reside below, over the skin of Gaia.
She walks slowly towards the entrance where she can see him standing, waiting for her.
It has been years since Apollo pulled her into a dream to talk. He is few of her godly relatives who even deign to associate with her.
'Little Elena!' he calls jovially. 'Are you not happy?'
'Happy?'
'I saved him. Are you not happy?'
She looks at him and wonders if he even understands what he is asking from her. Is she happy?
What exactly is happiness?
She has forgotten all the proper emotions a human is supposed to have in that labyrinth. Now, there is only wonder and despair, the twins that are left behind from the vast family of emotions she once had. She fluctuates between the two.
'Poor, Elena! Did he not come to save you, your godly father?'
She looks at his golden perfection and wonders if cruelty comes easily to gods. It must. Does he not know that Hades never came to rescue her from her hell? Every divine being knows. The naiads, the dryads, the minor goddesses, and even the Bacchus priestesses know.
Does Apollo want to see how much the answer to his question hurts?
'No, he didn't,' she says simply, face devoid of despair, one of the two emotions she's left with.
Apollo stares at her as if he's peeling back the layers of skin to read her, to look into her muscles and her bones to see if the labyrinth left any mark beneath the flawless skin. He smiles after moments pass, satisfied.
'I saved your Damon,' he says again.
'Thank you,' she says and tilts her head slightly to convey respect, for this is what he wants, doesn't he?
Her respect. Her gratitude.
'Of course, I had to partially take his memories away, for Nyx wanted his life as a recompense for the embarrassment he caused to her descendent, the Aegean king Niklaus, but I saved him, made sure that he lived.'
Vengeance for embarrassment caused to Niklaus? Her fingers curl in her palm. Gods truly do represent the worst vices of humanity, don't they? She wonders what satisfaction Goddess Nyx must have had from her torture and Damon's near death.
'Do you remember the partridge, Elena?'
The jeering guards chasing her in the narrow tunnels…the voices…sinister mad whispers of all who perished before her…call of a perdix…leading her away from her chasers…the voices…Damon whispering in her ears…we will find a way, Elena…
She averts her face to compose herself.
'He was the partridge, Elena, roaming the skies above the labyrinth, waiting for you…'
A moment is all it takes for her to grab him by his throat. She squeezes and he chokes.
'What did you do?' she snarls. Gods never do anything for anyone without an ulterior motive. Her own father let her be born in this cruel world so that she could ease his loneliness whenever he so desired. There's always a catch with the gods, always the fine print they would like you to ignore.
She forces Apollo on his knees. He may be the sun god, but she's the daughter of the Hades who was forced to channel primordial chaos in that labyrinth, day after day, night after night.
'What did you do, Helios?' she calls him by his ancient name, the name mortals don't use anymore, the name that represents that once, he was a mere symbolic deity and nothing else.
'I saved him,' he wheezes.
'And what price did you demand? What did you took from him?'
Her nails are digging in his skin, the gold slowly filling the crescent indents. He's starting to glow subtly. The morning is fast approaching.
'What did you take from him?' she roars.
'His memories and his love…'
Shock makes her stumble. Her hold loosens. He breaks free.
Her Damon…is he gone?
'From morning till sunset, he will have no memories of you, no love that was once only yours...'
She looks at him in disgust, this god who thinks he performed a miracle. She can bind him; stop the morning from ever replacing the night, she thinks.
'Only your heartbreak stays my hand from punishing you for this sacrilege that you just committed, Elena,' he drawls.
She eyes him, this overconfident, selfish god who had to take something from a man already dying to perform his miracle. Anger rises from the pit of her stomach and she tastes the rust of blood in her mouth, warm and salty, and so very familiar.
She closes her eyes and opens her mind and body once again for the great god of pit who hides in Gaia's belly.
It is pain and it is ecstasy. It is the sharp coldness that somehow feels like warmth.
This time there are no priests holding her down, forcing her to receive the essence of Khaos, the first god from whom sprung all the gods and the titans, giants and demons.
Damon. Once she is through with Apollo, she can forever be with Damon.
She feels her limbs twisting and her consciousness curling in a corner to save itself from the madness of Khaos.
She feels him eating up her soul till she can't tell if she is Elena or Khaos.
She opens her eyes and the world, the world is a swirling landmass of colors she can arrange on her whim. She turns her head to look at the man who calls himself the sun god.
'Weakling,' she hisses in the ancient tongue. 'How many worship you today?'
Apollo rears back in shock, his eyes going wide.
'Elena!'
'Have you forgotten me, Helios?' she sings. 'Have you forgotten the parts in which you cut me along with your brethren and hid me in Gaia's womb?'
'It can't be,' Apollo whispers.
'You left this godling to rot, Helios. They broke her enough so that she could receive me. Isn't she the perfect vessel? The death god's daughter?'
Apollo starts backing away, making her smile. How easy it is to scare the gods.
She breaks her chest and reaches into it to gather some of the essence. Her hands twist over the swirling darkness and soon, she is holding chains in her hands that won't break, that won't rust or be broken by any godly hand but her own.
Apollo starts to run and she laughs.
For once, it doesn't hurt to indulge in Khaos's madness. She twists one end around her wrist and moves the chain in a great arc over her head, letting her weapon find its mark.
Apollo's howls start as soon as the shadows touch his skin. She gleefully runs in a circle around him till he resembles a godly moth in a shadowed cocoon of chains, only his head left free, so that he can shriek and shout for help to his heart's content, so that all those high and mighty gods come and fail to break him out.
She drags him to the stairs of his palace and dumps him there.
'Now, morning will never come, Apollo,' she says with a soft smile on her face even as Khaos slowly seeps out of her body. 'Now, Damon will never forget me. He will always love me…'
This is getting weirder by every sentence. Was supposed to be a two short, but now only Elena knows how long this is gonna go. I might not be able to update till 20th December because of my exams. So, how have you all been? I was beyond moon when I read all of your reviews. Keep them coming. Pretty please?