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"Stupid." She snarled. "Ignorant." She spat. "Harridan! If my hair does burn and eyes do boil finding that wicked hellcat then I will still never stop in my search of her!"

A painfully lonely saga accompanied the immortal life of the goddess Aphrodite.

Aphrodite was a goddess that exceeded every other being, mortal or otherwise, in beauty and charm, so alluring that any mortal man would fall for her at her sight.

Given, she had irrevocable beauty, but what gave her her most goddess like quality were her eyes, which were colored half and half. They were half hazel towards the bottom right, of a golden brown shade, and could look upon a man and fill him with powerful and uncontrollable lust. The other half at the top left, of an elegant violet, would fill a man with the indomitable drive to fulfill her every will.

With her fantastic eyes and a prepossessing smile of her thick lips, she easily convinced the attendant of the River Styx to ferry her across; however, the smile was fictitious as she was anything but pleased.

Her husband, the abominable and dour Hephaestus, an astoundingly ugly god, and her two lovers that she had turned to for companionship in her loveless marriage, Adonis and Ares, truly meant nothing to her.

There was one man she loved, despite his weak mortality.

Seth, the Egyptian Pharaoh's highest priest, had captured her heart in a method that she had used to bind so many mortals: love.

When Zeus advised the Greek kings, of all the islands of Greece, to ally themselves with the growing powers of Egypt, connections of trade were immediately formed. Their cultures combined and their peoples mixed.

That was how Aphrodite met Seth.

He was honoring the Greeks that were coming to visit Egypt in a celebratory parade, as the Pharaoh commanded him. Aphrodite knew that such a great communion of humans would result in love, hopeless or otherwise, but she never expected that love would be her own.

It was ironic that a human could enamor her, though she was the one who held power over all mortals' love. It could have been because he was the only one who seemed resistant to her magnetism.

It was strange, too, that even the Fates could not predict her falling for a mortal man.

But that was of no relevance now, now that he was gone. She hadn't been there while the Thief Lord was attacking and a demon ended up consuming her Seth, her dearest Seth. . .

So now, Hades had him. But it wasn't Hades that she was worried about.

No, it was Persephone; Persephone had fought her for companionship with Adonis, for when Adonis went down to the Underworld, Persephone, Hades' wife and the goddess of vegetation and growth, tried to keep him.

Because of Seth's infatuating spell over, Aphrodite no longer had eyes for that lover of hers. Now she only wanted Seth, but Persephone could hold a grudge.

"Persephone," the goddess called once into the Underworld's depths. "I want you to tell me where my Seth has gone."

"What is that you speak of, Aphrodite? I do not know what you wish of me." The blonde beauty responded with an innocent face. They embittered loneliness had not left her eyes.

"Tell me where he is, you ugly wench! What have you done with the Egyptian Priest Seth!?"

"Oh, is that little mortal the one of which you speak? The Pharaoh's priest, you've come for him?"

"Yes. Tell me where he is."

"It seems that the judges disapproved of his life actions. His soul is on the ferry to Tartarus." Persephone gave the information as though it were simple, trivial banter.

"What?!?" Aphrodite hissed and her eyes darkened. The edges of Persephone's lips curved in maliciously and her eyes narrowed. Stealing away Adonis, taking him from her when there was nothing else to comfort her, and then going for another man?! The harpy deserved to pay for her wicked deeds, and through Seth, she would.

For those who aren't fervently interested in mythology, Tartarus is the equivalent of Hell. Many terrible things were said about it on Olympus, the Greek god's home.

Some swore to have seen fires engulf all those approaching it, that it is a place of eternal fire. Some said that it was a place of ever lasting loneliness, where nothing but silence exists. All that was certain was that when one entered the torturous hearth they never left.

Ever.

In a flare of anger, Aphrodite flailed her arms at Persephone and sent her flying backward. To protect their queen, undead demons arose from the ground and charged the love goddess, but she had turned to run.

It took what seemed like years of running about a labyrinth to find the River Cocytus, the river leading to Tartarus. But it was too late: the ferry had already taken off in the flaming water, filled with intertwining souls of the damned.

Aphrodite saw Seth and he turned to see her.

With all substantial theatricalism, Seth called out to Aphrodite.

She called back to him and tears came from her eyes.

Now she understood. She finally, truly understood the love she thought she had control over for so long. She hated herself for not fixing every pair of lovers to perfect happiness.

In her desperation, Aphrodite had flung herself into the acidic river. She frantically swam through the grabbing spirits. The deathly liquid scalded her skin and charred her hair but she paid no mind.

There was only one thing she cared about and she was about to lose him forever.

Aphrodite came up to the side of the gondola that was being rowed by a skeleton and reached for Seth. He took her in his arms and she wept into his chest, from the fear for his soul and the burning of her skin.

"There isn't much time," he told her. "But here." Seth held out a golden ring with an Egyptian inscription on it and a grasp for a gemstone, but no gem.

"But Seth," Aphrodite swallowed down a sob. "We cannot marry here."

"No, not here. But someday, I swear it." He slid the band onto her ring finger. "Make a pact with me."

She solemnly nodded.

"Someday we will be together again. I have blessed this ring so that our souls may be connected. I promise, someday."

They kissed each other for the last time in that life.

In five million years they would meet again.

But that life wouldn't be so great, either.