Chapter 4: Birth of Alcides
Alcmene was fit to burst. Her time was coming any time now and Hebe had been running around the palace of Perseus's descendants making sure everything was ready. The birthing chamber was prepared and the proper sacrifices were made along with an additional and extravagant one made to Hera. Now all there was to do was wait.
Alcmene had her family around her, including her also very pregnant sister in law Nicippe. Hebe looked at them shrouded in invisibility and smiled. Has she ever had a moment like this? Surrounded by loving blood kin? More often then not, Zeus and Hera are at each other throats. When they were happy with one another nobody could get in between them and the cloud of lust they emit. Her siblings are the bloody Ares and Eris who she has little in common with, the reclusive Hephaestus, and Ilithyia who has never had time for her. Not to mention the multitude of siblings that Zeus's affairs had produced.
She sighed but her wistful thoughts were interrupted by a cry from Alcmene. She had bounded up in an instant, but the mortals were doing everything they could for her. There was nothing for Hebe to actually do. Which is why she was the only one to watch as Nicippe, even though she still had two months to carry the baby inside of her, gave an echoing cry and fell to her knees.
Hebe turned around and saw her older sister standing there working her divine gift on the younger princess.
"Ilithyia!" Hebe shouted. "What are you doing?"
She looked surprised to see her younger sister in Amphitryon's palace. "Go home, little one. What are you doing lurking around mortals."
"I'm helping Father." Hebe answered with a sternness in her voice and chin. Ilithyia always treated her like a godlet even though she was full grown.
"Well, I'm here on Mother's business, so let's see who will prevail?" Ilithyia gave her a smirk that clearly showed her confidence in what was to come.
"Mother!" Hebe's eyes widened. "Oh no! What's going to happen?"
"Amphitryon will get an heir but it won't be of his loins; it'll be of his brothers." Hebe's sister shrugged and focused on Nicippe who was calling for help.
"What's going to happen to happen to Alcmene?" Hebe nearly shouted at her frustratingly caviler sister.
She just shrugged without even looking, "I think Hermes is on his way to lead her down to Hades."
This stopped Hebe in her tracks, mentally and physically. The beautiful woman that Hebe had begun to get to known was going to be murdered by her sister along with her unborn child. On Hera's orders. Hera's hate runs deep but it's venom shocked even her own daughter.
The screams were begun to be heard on both sides of the palace. Hours passed as Hebe fought with herself, trying to figure out what to do. Alcmene's screams were a cry of frustrated pain while Nicippe's were the harsher moans of pushing the child out. It seemed as if no time had passed at until a servant ran into the hall shouting out the birth of a boy child to the younger princess of Perseus's House.
"Now, this is where the hard part begins." Ilithyia took a deep breath and sat in front down in the hall before Alcmene's birthing chamber. She whispered instructions to herself "That child sure wants to be born. I've got to hold him in there until he's too tired."
Hebe heard her sisters words and they slowly sank into her fogged mind. She had to concentrate. Zeus had asked this one thing of her. If she failed before the baby even took one breath of air, would Zeus ever trust her again? She raced into the birth chamber and was taken back by the smell of blood and sweat that thickened the air in the room and stifled it.
One look at Alcmene told Hebe she had little time. The poor girl was covered in sweat and her chiton clung moistly to her skin; she had soaked it through. Her eyes were squeezed shut as she clenched her mouth to hold in the screams clawing up her throat and forcing their way out.
What could she do? She was a Goddess of Youth. She kept the gods young, and there was little more that she did. Think! She yelled at herself as her dark eyes took in the entire room.
There was a servant girl there, clutching the hand of her mistress and hiding the tears that falling down her face. She had seen child births before and knew something was wrong. Something should have happened by now. The midwife looked troubled and kept checking the progress in between murmuring comforts to the pained queen.
Seeing the tears on a servants face made something click inside of Hebe. It was not what she could do as a Goddess, but what her mind could do that would get her out of this one. She had always been good at puzzles and mind games, she and Kore would trade them under Helios's summer glow for hours at a time. This was just another puzzle.
Her eyes widened as she thought of something that could work. Ilithyia was far too easily flustered. Always had been; it was one of the reasons she could never stand a godlet sister bugging her all the time. She glamoured herself to look the part of a god and appeared before the worried mortals.
Both the midwife and the servant leapt to their feet but Alcmene barely stirred from her place, just looked at the golden goddess through heavy lids.
"Do you love your queen?" Hebe demanded of the servant in a regal voice. The servant fell to her knees before Hebe and stuttered her confirmation. "Then you must run from this room declaring that a son has been born. Yell it from every wing of the palace. Go now, before it's too late."
The servant stood and ran from the room without any more encouragement. The false announcements had begun to pass her lips before she had managed to make it out of the room. Hebe hid herself from sight once more and tiptoes to the door to watch. As the servant passed her sister sitting tightly cross legged with a pained look on her perfect face, she shouted the fake news.
Ilithyia's eyes snapped opened, revealing eyes as brown as her mothers. "WHAT!" She demanded and stood up in haste. Her gown barely had time to settle by her feet before she stormed into the birthing room in time to hear the midwifes joyous cry of "I see him, my lady! Push! He'll be out soon!"
Ilithyia stood dumbstruck for a moment taking in the scene. "He… he's not born yet?"
"But will be soon!" Hebe crowed with pleasure at tricking her sister. "I guess, I won!"
"You little!" Ilithyia turned on her sister, "Mother demanded that I do this! She is going to be furious!"
"And Father asked me to take care of his son." Hebe answered back just as seriously. "He would be furious with me if I let him die."
"He won't make it long!" Ilithyia scowled. "Not with Mother after him."
"Well, I'll help him until he does." She put a hand on her hip and scowled right back.
"I'm telling Mother!" Ilithyia turned on her heel and stalked out.
"Fine!" She answered and stalked out after, "And I'll tell her how you failed her."
"You are such a pain in the ass, Hebe." Ilithyia groaned and summoned herself to Olympus.
Hebe scowled and settled into a couch that was near her. Ilithya could make her so furious sometimes. She let the commotion continue around her as she settled her own anger. She heard snippets of the conversation that the servants traded hurriedly as the ran by the couch that Hebe rested on.
"Tiresias is here…"
"…the blind seer?"
"twins were born…."
"one's so strong…"
"Nacippi's has a son too"
"…the other's weak in comparison."
"The seer has a prophecy…"
"… not good.."
"…child of Zeus."
Hebe silently marveled at the speed in which news was passed between servant to servant. The day hadn't ended and they knew all that was passing between the walls of the palace.
She was glad Tiresais was here. He had dealt with gods since he was a young man and stumbled upon an argument between Zeus and Hera. Now he would be the one to translate for the royal family, she had a few things to say to them and didn't want to frighten them as she must have in the birthing chamber.
She wandered down the hall smiling to herself, vaguely looking around the hall for Tiresais. She had done something right. She had tricked her older sister and succeeded. Zeus would be proud of her. She was nearly glowing with her deed.
She found Tiresais in the main courtyard. He was standing by the flowers as if he could see them. Even though she was shrouded in invisibility he turned to her as she approached.
"Goddess of Youth, you do me great honor," The blind seer bowed low.
"Mortal," She answered. "Your respect is well received."
"It shouldn't be." He turned sightless eyes to her face, "I won't tell you good things."
"You what?"
"Beware the spawn of beauty, for his arrow shall make you loose everything. Your home, your family, your occupation." He prophesized with a melancholy tone.
"Eros is going to make me fall in love?" She nearly lost her composure, "With who!?"
"With a descendant of Perseus."
"Amphitryon!" Hebe's voice was rising towards piercing. Her composure was quickly running away on swift feet. "Well then I'll just avoid him! I can beat Eros. I beat my sister!"
Tiresais sighed, "You can't escape the future."
"Watch me." She put her hands on her hips and glared at the faultless man. "I'll be in the nursery. He'll never go there. You have to go to the Throne Room and tell them about Zeus's promise. He can be really thick sometimes. Because of his promise, his son will never be king. The son of Nicippe shall be king. The twins of Amphytrion's line shall only be princes. Tell him that the son of Zeus is hated by Hera, she needs to be appeased."
"Yes, Goddess." He bowed his head low. "Is that all?"
She opened her mouth to ask about the future of the little boy she promised to protect but on second thought realized that knowing the future just clouded it even more. She shook her head, knowing he couldn't see but also knowing that her meaning would be conveyed into his mind. She headed to the nursery then to await her messenger. Then she could go home.
It was preposterous to even think that she would ever lose her place in Olympus. Lose her father? Her mother? She was Cupbearer to the gods, no one else could take that spot. Right?
When she entered the room high up in the women's section of the palace she could tell instantly which baby was which. Zeus's child faintly glowed with the touch of divinity. Already he was ahead of the other boys and looking around the nursery with bright blue eyes the color of a summer sky. She glamoured herself into the form of the servant girl who she had tricked Ilithyia earlier.
"How are the wee babes doing?" She cooed in the older woman's voice to the attending servant.
"Galanthis!" The woman rushed to Hebe's side. "I heard awful rumors about your fate!"
"You.. uh… what?" Hebe stammered nervously. She loved to watch mortals but rarely actually interacted with them. Few interact with the Goddess of Youth daily.
"Everyone was saying that the awesome Goddess of Childbirth herself changed you into a weasel for tricking her and saving the Queens life in the process!" The younger attendant hugged her close, "I'm glad the rumors aren't true."
"Oh, goodness." Hebe squeaked and hugged the other girl awkwardly back. She didn't even think about the fate of the poor servant. "Well, clearly they talk to much nonsense. Tell me about the babies."
"Oh yes, of course!" She turned and slid over to the three cradles.
"These are the two you saved. Here's the son that everyone is saying is the son of Zeus. His name is Alcides. Here is his twin Iphicles. And here is Nacippe's son, Eurystheus. I wonder who they'll make king? The son of Zeus or the son of the King."
"Neither." Hebe shrugged and looked at the blue eyed child who was reaching out to her. "Eurystheus will rule the House of Perseus."
"That's insane. Why would the nephew of the king take priority over the kings own sons?"
"He was born first. The gods decreed it. Tiresias is telling Amphitryon now. " She went to the child she had sworn to protect and picked him up. Careful to hold him with soft hands instead of her Goddess strength she cooed to the little prince softly.
That's when she felt the sharp piercing arrow enter her heart. She nearly dropped the baby, Alcides, but managed to sink into a chair with the little one. She looked up to see Eros waving at her cheerfully as he stretched out his wings and flew away.
"No." She whispered breathlessly and then looked into the bright blue eyes of the baby who had stolen her heart. She was in love. Dreadfully in love with a child who had been born only hours before. Her whole body ached with the heaviness of the arrow still buried in her breast.
She tried to catch her breath and reason with herself but the little one reached up with a little hand and tugged on a curl that was slowly turning back to a glorious glowing blond. Every thought except for the ones marveling over the perfect mortal child left her. The servant girl was already on her knees as she looked at the scene of young goddess and baby.
"Alcides." She breathed. The little prince who held the blood of Perseus in him. Tiresias words echoed in her head and her blood ran cold in her veins.
