I don't own the Wardstone Chronicles. Sadly. I don't own Percy Jackson & the Olympians either. Actually something good since I would have made Pertemis and Pothena happen... And ruined both the series if i had owned them...
Lamia turned around, startled. She was face-to-face with a very beautiful woman. Lamia didn't know how to describe her since she wasn't simply beautiful. The embodiment of beauty was a better discription.
Her appearance changed all the time, but right now, she had flowing, blond hair and turquoise eyes. Her hair came to her waist and looked like gold, shining and catching the rays of light. Her eyes were a mix of lime and light blue, with thick and long lashes. Her nose and mouth were absolutely perfect, no other way to describe her. She was tall, lithe and perfectly shaped. Lamia was convinced any girl would be outh of their mind of jealousy if they saw the woman's figure. And the rest of her, for she was impossibly beautiful.
Her clothes seemed to fit her perfectly, like they were mad of her. Lamia didn't approve of them however. The skirt was, in her opinion, way too short. Her top left most of her arms and shoulder bare and allowed someone to look right into it, Lamia noticed. Her boots, with very high heels, came over her knees and seemed to be made of leather. The outfit, in Lamia's opinion, was sort of... slutty.
Lamia raised her eyebrows slightly. " Aphrodite. To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" she asked overly formal, her voice cool. She really didn't like Aphrodite, considering her behaviour and her profession. Lamia suspected Aphrodite had been involved in her love life, which made her very annoyed with the woman. That was her business, and Aphrodite shouldn't interfere, after all.
Aphrodite smiled , either completely ignoring or missing Lamia's slight contempt, and took a step forward. " Well sweetheart, isn't it obvious? I'm here to help you, of course!". Lamia snorted. " Like you helped last time? My love life hasn't been exactly satisfying and-". Aphrodite giggled. " Oh, but my dear, I simply can't believe that with all the experience your lover had". Lamia narrowed her eyes. " There are more ways to be satisfied and I was certainly not satisfied with your father's behaviour. Besides, since I didn't have any experience before him, I had nothing to compare it to. Therefore, I simply couldn't confirm he was the best, since at that moment he was the only" Lamia said, her composture showing none of her anger, but the contempt and anger clear in her voice. Aphrodite shrugged. " Perhaps. I'm not you, so I can't be sure".
She smiled at Lamia again and raised an eyebrow, her expression eager. " Does this mean you're had lovers after him? I never noticed that. I actually believed you were still a monster, only interested in hurting people. And not in love or anything like it".
Athena sighed. " That is another Lamia, Aphrodite. This Lamia is from another place, probably some other dimension. We have talked about this during the meeting, weren't you heeding?" she commented. Aphrodite flung her hair and sighed. " Seriously Thi. I have no idea what you mean. Well, I sort of get the first part, but what means heeding? And what exactly are dimensions?". Lamia sighed. " Heeding means listening or paying attention. And your other questions, the official definition of a dimension is a measure of spatial extent, especially width, height, or length. In this case however, it -". " I wasn't really interested. That is soooo boring! I just meant Thi had to stop talking like that. No one can understand her-".
" That isn't indubitable. I pentrated her perfectly and-". Aphrodite started giggling uncontrolleble at the word 'penetrate'. Lamia stopped talking, frowning. " What? Why are you giggling? Can you stop it already, it's really annoying" Lamia asked Aphrodite, unsure of the cause of Aphrodite's giggling. When Aphrodite finally managed to stop, luckily for Lamia paying no attention to her comment of how annoying giggling was, she pursed her lips and smiled at Lamia. " You said penetrate! Do you get it?". Lamia was confused. Why would that word cause Aphrodite to giggle? What is so funny about the word penetrate? I really don't get it. It's definition is to understand and I seriously doubt aphrodite does even know that. I- Lamia's eyes widened slightly when she got it. There were other meaning of the word, of course. Lamia even blushed a little when she realized what Aphrodite was thinking.
Aphrodite laughed when she saw Lamia's expression. " Finally got it hon? I doubt you meant what I know it means, but still... Your mind must be set on one thing and-". Aphrodite was cut off by Athena who stepped forward and send her sister an annoyed glare. " The difinition of penetrate in this particular context, is understand. You have no asumen to-". " Whatever. But if you ask me, there is a reason she said penetrate instead of something else. Like understand". Athena sighed. " I would never ask you since your apperception of the cerebral is very limited".
Aphrodite stared at Athena, blinking once. Twice. " Huh?" was the only thing that left her mind. Lamia sighed and turned towards Athena. " She simply fails to conceive anything that you have voiced. You will have to utilize simple vocubulary". Lamia turned to Aphrodite, who was still frowning and just looking really confused. " She meant she would never ask you , because you basically don't know anything about the mind or what people think. Basically, she wouldn't ask you because you don't know a lot". Aphrodite seemed faintly irritated by now. " I just told you my opinion, that's all! And I know the most important things in live, like love and lust".
Lamia rolled her eyes. " Seriously? you truly believe those are the most importants subjects in life? Why?". Aphrodite sighed. " They are the most important things in life. What would we be without love? Would we still have any happiness? And what about lust? Without a little lust, I doubt there will be a lot children born". " Love is necessary, that's true. It can give you a lot of joy, but it also holds the power to destroy you. It's dangerous. And lust.. I suppose lust is all right as long as you constrain it before it gets out of hand. Love is far more important than lust. Still, I believe those aren't the most important things in life. You also need knowledge, if you ask me".
Athena nodded, but Aphrodite just raised her eyebrows. " And what has made you happy in life, knowlegde of love?". Lamia frowned. " My life hasn't been only happiness and the result of love was centuries of misery. I would have answered love, but it caused me a lot of pain. On the contrary though, the love for my family and husband has saved me, so.. I'm not sure". Aphrodite smiled. " You have an husband? Tell me about him. Was he good-looking?".
Athena sighed. " Really Aphrodite? The inaugural thing you question is if he was handsome or not? I believe, that is futile. She already had someone , like you name it, good-looking and what did that bring her? Not a lot of happiness, I postulate. I might not have a lot of knowledge on the sibject of love, but I postulate the most important matter is whether he loved her or not" Athena remarked. " You are , again, correct. What matters most, is if he loved me or didn't. Which he did. He was really attractive too. Sadly, he is dead" Lamia told them , her voice trembling a little.
She had lived John so much and everytime she was remembered he was dead, she felt the loss again. The sadness. The realization she was alive and could be for many more lives, while he couldn't.
Aphrodite saw the sadness in her eyes and immediately walked towards her and pulled her in an hug. Lamia froze, unsure of what to do. She hadn't expected Aphrodite to hug her, which she clearly did to comfort Lamia. Aphrodite pulled back. " Oh dear. I'm so sorry. Did he die recently? Or don't you want to talk about him".
Lamia smiled, but took a step back. She didn't feel comfortable standing really close to Aphrodite. Aphrodite didn't say anything, she just waited for Lamia's response. Athena remained equally silent, but looked interested. Lamia took a deep breath. " He died a few years ago. Hi-is name was John. He w-was a sailor. We were married and lived on a farm I bought him. He was so sweet and gentil and offered me so much love. He made me really happy, even when I didn't really want him in the beginning". Aphrodite raised her eyebrows. " Why didn't you want him in the beginning. Was he that ugly?" she said, her eyes widened.
Athena sighed and send Aphrodite a disapproving look. " Aphrodite, you really shouldn't say that. It's clear she loved him and you might know more about love than me, but I know you can't just say something like that". Aphrodite shrugged. " Well, it's the reason I don't like being married to Hephaestus. I mean he is really ugly! And he isn't that great in bed either, he-". " Stop that already! I have no desire to discover anything about that aspect of your life with Hephaestus. Besides, he can be a nice guy and you shouldn't be so hard on him".
Aphrodite rolled her eyes. " Please. He should be glad he has me close. I never wanted to marry him. And-". " The simple fact you didn't want to marry him, doesn't justify your actions. You can at least attempt to be faitful to him. You-". " You should shut up and mind your own business" Aphrodite interrupted Athena, who looked really annoyed.
Lamia stepped between them, sensing this would turn into a heated discussion at the very least if she didn't stop them. " Will you stop it already? This really is futile". Athena looked at Lamia, still a little annoyed, but nodded when she realized Lamia was right. Aphrodite looked to Athena, but seemed to decide whatever she wanted to ask Lamia, was more important. " So was he?" Aphrodite suddenly asked. Lamia looked at her, confused. " What do you mean?". Aphrodite rolled her eyes. " John. You husband. Was he handsome?". Lamia sighed. " Oh that. He was actually. He wasn't breathtaking or anything, but he was attractive. But at the time I met him, I wasn't exactly myself, so I didn't pay much attention to it". Aphrodite looked intrigued. " Really? Then what caught you attention?" she asked, her eyes focused on Lamia, trying to extract the answers from her.
Athena suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Lamia's wrist. Apparently, she was getting impatient. " She has no time for this and I doubt she want to discuss this. I need to talk with her and I have no time for this either. Leave her alone Aphrodite, she really don't need to be the casualty of your little plans again" she told Aphrodite.
Without another word, Athena dragged Lamia with her. Lamia didn't glance back, actually glad to be able to leave. Honestly, she didn't want to think to much about John. The pain was still too much. She was suprised about that, since she had experienced a lot in her long life and hadn't expected it to bother her that much. Then again, she had loved John.
Lamia pondered about this while being dragged by Athena. Does love always has to hurt? All the times in my life I felt any love, it eventually caused me a lot of pain. Then again, I did get a lot of happiness back. That might have made it worth it. Still, I hate it that John had to leave us all. It's not fair that we were seperated. I was just happy, even when I had to live different than I was used to, and then most of it was taken from me. Lamia's thoughts were oce interrupted when Athena stopped and released her wrist. She smiled at Lamia and pointed to the building behind her. " My residence" she explained.
Lamia looked at the large building. It was large and painted black and grey. The design itself looked simple, but beautiful. The place was heavily guarded, with guns and all other kind of weapons. The door seemed to be made of Titanium, Lamia just knew somehow , and had the symbol of an owl on it. Lamia smiled at Athena. " It's beautiful. The design looks simple, but is still beautiful and.. I don't know, it just fits you I suppose". " Something that looks simple, can be exceedingly complicated. I have conceptualized about it and it took me some effort". Lamia laughed. " I can imagine that. But that proves just how intelligent you are. It's easy to say something complicated as long as you study the words. But it's really hard to explain something very complicated using simple vocubulary" she said.
Athena smiled. " That is a valid point. I'm glad to discover some people actually use their brains". Lamia shrugged. " I try to. I can't be right all the time of course. And everyone makes mistakes". Lamia sighed when she thought of hers. Being here on Olympus, together with the gods, triggered her memories. They seemed far away, like it had all happened to some other person, but they were bothering her. It still hurt even if she had changed so much since then.
Athena looked at her, her gray eyes seeming to see right into her soul. " You are envisioning your past, aren't you?". Lamia nodded. She wasn't going to lie to Athena. " Yes, I am. Unwillingly of course. I would rather forget all of it ever happened. It hurts too much. It's not that I don't want to take responsebility, but there is nothing I can do about it. It all happened so long ago and I was a really different person back then". Athena nodded. " You already fathom what you should do. It wasn't entirely your fauly, you couldn't control yourself and you are unable to change anything about. It would be completely futile to waste energy by thinking about it".
Lamia sighed again. " I know. But being here, it just triggers my memories. It all comes back to me and I can't really stop it". Athena placed her thumb on some device and some sort of lightbeam reached her eye at the same time. She muttered something and the door swung open. " You should try to find a way to distract yourself. If you are distracted,you won't be thinking about it all the time" Athena advised her.
Lamia smiled. " That's a good advise. Thank you Athena". Athena shrugged. " No problem. Solving problems is one of my avocations. I enjoy the challence greatly. Sadly, most problems are easy to solve".
Lamia smiled. " I hypothesize that is because you are the goddess of wisdom. Solving problems is often very complicated". Athena nodded. " For most of us it is. Some or even unable to solve any problem. They only cause them". Lamia chuckled. " True. There are some people who only cause them".
" Like men" they heard behind them. They both turned to see Artemis walking through the door. She smiled at Athena. " Hello The. How are you?". Athena shrugged. " I suppose I'm fine. Just a little agitated about this situation Lamia's arrival has put us in, but that's all".
Artemis nodded. " I suppose. It's very odd. We will have to invest that. But let's relax first, right?". When Athena nodded, silently agreeing, she turned towards Lamia. " And while we are at it, we might need a little... talk" she said, her expression unreadable.
Lamia swallowed, her throat a little dry. She just hoped Artemis would be an ally, not an enemy. What more could she hope for?