Reborn from the waves

A/N – this chapter is of course inspired by Sandro Botichelli's famous painting.

Kliethe was hurled with full force over the edge of the ledge. With a terrifying scream the fifty-something woman fell down in the abyss.
"Kliethe!" Aphrodite threw herself forward in a vain try at reaching her comrade. But too late, Kliethe's scream disappeared in an abysmal echo which reverberated in the chasm until it faded and died out.

Aphrodite woke up with her friend's name on her lips - petrified, for what night in the order she did not know, oddly dry and cold rivulets of sweat travelling down her spine like the cold fingers of ghosts. The Kytheran goddess had actually believed her younger friend had died down there for a while, although she should've known better. Gods didn't perish by falling down chasms. But Aphrodite guessed it was the many years spent with mortals which made her misinterpreting the situation. That paired with the general anxiety of being discovered doing something not really appropriate together with Neophoros. Or at least not appropriate in the context.

Eiraton had been a bit more accurate in his reaction; he leaned over the crevasse and called out for Kliethe.
"Are you okay?" he had bellowed and Aphrodite almost thought she heard a small squeal down there.
"Kliethe?" Neophoros' deeper voice. Now the reply became a bit louder.
"Guys...?"
"You okay?" Eiraton repeated himself and Kliethe was silent for a while before she responded.
"No... I guess... there are creepy things down here. And I don't know how to get out."
"Levitate of course!" Eiraton called back.
"We're... not allowed."
"But how the..."
"Creepy things?" Aphrodite cut in. "What kind of creepy things?"

Kliethe didn't reply and Eiraton urged her once again to return by levitating.
"She's in a state of shock," Neophoros said and glanced over at Eiraton.
"What do you mean, chock?"
"She fell down there all of a sudden and now she's too scared of breaking any frigging rule to return the normal way. She has to climb up. And we'll have to help her."
"Help her?" Eiraton scorned. "And just how are we supposed to do that? By jumping down ourselves? Now, get real, Argive! By the way what were the two of you actually doing when we came here?"
"If you have trouble figuring such an obvious thing out," Aphrodite snapped, "I suggest you shut the big beak up and let me and Neophoros figure out how to help poor Kliethe!"

"Aphrodite, don't be such a..."
"Shut up, Eiraton," Neophoros said and then he leaned over the chasm once more:
"Kliethe, what does it look like down there, save for being filled with 'creepy things'? Can you scale the walls, you think?"
"I..."
"Come on, dear, you can do it! Go over to one of the walls and feel it with your hand! Feel how rugged it is; try to find hand- and footholds!"

While Aphrodite and Eiraton were mostly looking on, Neophoros encouraged Kliethe to begin climbing up the cave wall and heartened her to keep going until he was able to reach down, grab her under her armpits and haul her up the last 1½ meters.
"Ah..." she called out when she was back on terra firma again. Now, Eiraton was all over her, wanting to hold her and comfort her, but she was not letting go of Neophoros. Feeling at lost Aphrodite turned to the latter, telling him:
"Give her time! She doesn't feel that well now, and just letting go of Neophoros does probably seem as hard as climbing that wall yet another time."
"For fate's sake, it was just a wall!" Eiraton grumbled but Aphrodite laid her hand on his shoulder, pulled him to the side and hushing him:
"Don't tell her that! Don't play down her effort! Instead, when we get out of here, get some food and go up to her place and cook for her! I know you're good at it and that's the way to her heart. You just have to be patient."
"I... what if HE's there?"

Aphrodite didn't have to ask who HE was. She just stared right into the brown eyes of Eiraton telling him to simply make sure Neophoros wasn't.
"You have to trust a bit in your own abilities, Eiraton" she continued. "Most of the time the greatest obstacles in love is the boulders we lay in our own paths. We have to stop hindering ourselves, only then can we go for it for real. Hang back for the moment, and later, when you know she's alone, make sure to be there for her in earnest. Then she'll appreciate it. Now she's just holding on to whatever there is. Which happens to be Neophoros. But it means little. Or nothing at all."

"You think so?" Eiraton asked and sniffed.
"I am quite certain of that."
"And how can you be that?"
"I've seen it before. Plenty of times."
"But wasn't that – mortals?"
"Eiraton, they're just like us when it comes to love. Not that big a difference."

After that Aphrodite turned to Neophoros and Kliethe.
"Let's get out of here," she urged. "Time's running out."
"But we didn't really..." Neophoros began.
"Do any tests, I know," Aphrodite answered him. Then she sighed. She was more or less sick of this now. "I guess we failed this anyway."
"How do we get out?" Eiraton asked.
"Same way as we got in, I presume," Aphrodite shrugged.
"But I don't remember which way I came," Neophoros said. "Do you? Eiraton? Kliethe?"

Both of the other gods just shook their heads, looking a bit at loss. Therefore Aphrodite squeezed her eyes shut, tried to recall the route she had walked to reach this damned place and then turn that way around backwards. After figuring that out, she led the other three through the tunnels. They took the wrong turn twice but in the end they found their way back to the round room with all the doors. It was empty at the time and when they exited the cave system the sun was high in the sky and burned unusually hot for the season.

Sitting on a boulder Eumonia was waiting for them with an inscrutable look on her face. Waiting for any of them to say her or his first word.

*o*o*

Aphrodite turned in her bed, slammed her fist in the pillow and cursed. She was so certain she had blown that cave test. Whatever it had really been about. Hidden riddles no doubt. Things they expected her to find and to solve. She had done nothing of that kind; instead she had made love with Neophoros. She felt like such a loser!

Eumonia had told her to go take a swim in the ocean and then to go up in her room, she would come visit her later in the afternoon. Nothing more, nothing less and with a perplexed mind Aphrodite did as told. She swam out to the black seastack some three miles away from the shore and then she rounded it without stopping for the usual rest, instead she returned right back home. Not until she closed the door to her rooms had it hit her. She had met no other in the water or on the paths to and from the beach and not a single soul had been around in the dorms. Where was everybody? As she flung herself on the bed Aphrodite noted how silent it was. Not a sound of her friends. No talk, no laughter, not the usual bumps and thuds and slamming of doors telling that there were others out and about. It was as if everyone else had left to go somewhere else. She really wondered where.

Later in the evening Eumonia came into Aphrodite's room and informed her that she was still in the group but that five of her comrades had been told to leave. The Kytheran had been asked to come down and dine with the remaining young gods.

The group sure was diminished. When Aphrodite arrived in the refectory for the meal, she noted that Eiraton was gone. And so were Gephion and Sudema. Neophoros was still around though, as were Kliethe, Ishtar and Anaxar. Quiet Anaxar, Aphrodite couldn't help wonder at his presence. Why was he still around, and not for instance Suderna who had been so alert and clever all the time? Suderna, the star pupil, the invincible, why was she gone? There were several similar questions sent Eumonia's way that evening, but their teacher had refused to answer any of those. Whatever had happened to their comrades, wherever they had gone, Eumonia was not going to tell anything. Hence the reduced group had dined more or less in silence, all of them with her or his head spinning with thoughts.

The coming few days were spent in this kind of after-shock, although Aphrodite and Kliethe discussed what happened in the caves. Kliethe was convinced that she should have been asked to leave after her debacle with the fall.
"When I found myself still around I couldn't help wondering if some mistake had been made somewhere. Then it hit me that perhaps we are the goners."
"What do you mean, we're still here?" Aphrodite asked puzzled.
"Perhaps those who made it are the ones who went somewhere else. Perhaps they went with Alpheus deeper in the caves to continue the education while we, who flunked it, were the ones who got out. And now we are just waiting for the rest to return. Or something."

Aphrodite regarded the short, flaxen-haired and amber skinned goddess. Maybe Kliethe was right. Maybe it was those sitting here who flunked the test. After all Eumonia had just handed them some reading tasks and then she seemed to busy herself with other, more important things. In lack of anything else to say Aphrodite returned to safe shores and asked Kliethe about Eiraton, what he meant to her. Kliethe had surprised Aphrodite with three guileless words:
"I hate him."
"Why?"
"He didn't care. I wanted him to see ME, not just the mirror of himself in me."
"So he was like that, eh?"

"Yeah, you might say that. I had hard to reach him. And in the cave we ran into each other and for some reason we started to talk about it. Or I started to talk about it but he wasn't keen on listening. In the end he ran away with me after and thus we ran into the two of you. You were making it out, right?"

"Yes," Aphrodite blushed in spite of herself. "Yes, in fact we did."
"Oh... sorry about that..."
"Don't be, we were done when you came."
"Was he... good?"
"Eh..."
"Oh, you don't have to answer that of course. Now... you can understand why he was upset, right? Eiraton, I mean."
"In a way. You know, Kliethe?"
"What?"
"If you see him again - give him one last chance. Perhaps the cave taught him something. If not - forget him!"
"That easy, eh?"
"No, it's hardly ever 'that easy'. But sometimes it's necessary nevertheless."

They vented the subject bit more where they sat in the shadow on the patio. More than anything it felt to Aphrodite like the younger woman needed to talk it out of her system. In the end she stood and said:
"I'll do as you suggested, Aphrodite. If I ever meet him again. And let me give you one word of advice back?"
"Yeah?"
"You're sensitive and intelligent, woman. And you know these things. But you have a way of talking to people sometimes, as if they are just extras in the play that is your life. We're very real, Aphrodite. We're flesh and blood and not just Eumonia's homework."
"Do I... sound like that?" Aphrodite had never considered herself particularly sensitive, but when Kliethe voiced her opinion, Aphrodite actually felt tears burn in the back of her eyes. Truth hurt sometimes! She couldn't just shrug it off, she understood it had taken a lot of courage from Kliethe's side to voice her opinion.

"Yes, sometimes you do. I know you care, but others may not see it that way. And then there are the guys."
"What about them?"
"They're not there just for sex you know."
"I..."
"I guess you know that as well, but love is more than just..." Kliethe silently mimicked the act with her hips. "I... hope you're not mad at me for saying this, but it was either being honest or being a chicken."
"I... Kliethe... Thanks." It was quite an effort saying that, to confront her own weaknesses in front of someone else. To admit that Kliethe was right when she voiced her criticism. To admit that she, Aphrodite, was far from the perfect being. She guessed that was a weakness everyone had more or less of. The inability to admit their own faults. She also understood that this flaw could be a big obstacle in a relation between two people, so if she could find ways to work around such hindrances without pointing fingers in any direction, there would be a lot to gain.

Kliethe left after these words and Aphrodite became alone with her thoughts, running them over again and again, wondering if Kliethe was right. If they were drop outs while the rest of the students were still in the competition. Somewhere else. In any case, Aphrodite figured, Olympos was most probably out of the discussion by now.
"Whatever," she said to herself, "it was fun as long as it lasted. Now I won't have to worry mother by going somewhere she doesn't want me to go. I can go home to Kythera instead. Take a few months of holiday before I decide what to do next in my life."

*o*o*

Eumonia woke her up before dawn the next day. A silent knock on the door. Aphrodite felt frozen and melancholic, she had been waken up from the most wonderful and exciting dream, which she now recalled only traces from. Traces, which soon disappeared like flutters in the wind and were no more. Sweeping a robe around her slender form she went to answer the door.
"Aphrodite," her teacher greeted her as soon as she peaked through the narrow door opening. "Come with me, it's time for your final evaluation."
"My what?" The Kytheran goddess' voice was naturally perplexed.
"Come with me!"

When Aphrodite made a gesture to close the door and return to her room, Eumonia had taken the door in her right hand, gentle but firm.
"Now! Aphrodite, come with me now!"
"But I need to get dressed."
"What you wear now will do. We are going down to the beach."
"Why?"
"You'll see when we get there. "

Once again, Aphrodite found herself following Eumonia, wearing a puzzled expression upon her face. They walked through a silent house, filled with the vibes of sleep, she could even catch fragments of what people were dreaming around her. In a strange way her senses felt expanded, sharpened. As if her sleep that night had readied her somehow for what to come. Yet she had no idea what it meant. Or what her teacher meant. Why were they going down to the beach? Honestly, she was sick and tired of riddles now, but she didn't know what to do about it.

Upon arrival Aphrodite caught sight of large torches stuck in the sand, torches with burning flames and a folded square of red textile was lying on the ground, magic holding it down in spite of winds chasing across the beach. Eumonia didn't go there though, she walked past it and down to the waterfront, Aphrodite following mystified. Her teacher stopped just before the point where the waves peaked before returning to the ocean again, leaving foam behind like aquatic semen. There she turned to face her.
"Today is your day of initiation, Aphrodite," she said. "You have passed all the tests laid before you and done it with excellency. I am proud of you, your advancement showed me that I was right about you. You have a very special gift for match-making and pairing people and you have showed that more than enough over the last days."

"What do you mean," Aphrodite asked bewildered. "I didn't do anything. Or at least very little. In the cave..."
"You were excellent in the cave. You read Neophoros, Kliethe and Eiraton almost like open books. And what you didn't see you made them tell you about."
"How...?"
"Neophoros wanted the sexual relief, Eiraton wanted to play the part of importance to impress upon Kliethe and finally Kliethe wanted to understand her own feelings and fears. I'll be honest now and tell you the truth about those tests. There weren't any of your friends you encountered in the caves. What you did was falling asleep, drugged by the drink Alpheus gave you. You slept in one of those little rooms and you were receiving dreams evolving around your friends. Dreams in which there were riddles for you to solve. These were the tests you went through. As did all the rest."

"So I never did make love to Neophoros in there then? And Kliethe didn't fall down in the abyss?"
"No," Eumonia confirmed. "To be true there is no abyss in there , there's no caves or tunnels, there's hardly anything more than the round chamber and the small rooms surrounding it."
"It was all in my dreams?"
"Yes it was."
"And the others, did they dream too?"
"They did."
"About me."
"Yes some did. Kliethe for instance."

"How about Neophoros?" Aphrodite shivered in the cold morning air. The thought of...
"Actually he was one of the few who didn't do that. Actually, he's not even a student here. Not this time at least. He passed those tests way earlier. No, he is a dream master. He worked together with us to make these dreams happen."
"Including - me having sex with him?" Now Aphrodite felt embarrassment burn upon her cheeks and could hardly face her teacher.
"Yes he did. That was one of the harder tests. How would you meet a man who was a little bit too hot? Would you follow through or not?"
"And I passed?"
"Yes."
"By making love with him?"

"That was one possible option. Another would have been turning him down without hurting or angering him. Solving that would have given you more points because it's way harder. Then again, we can't master everything at first try. Besides, you did well enough with the other dream parts, including helping your friends to find the way out of the cave."
"And the swim? Was that a dream as well?"
"No that was real. That was to get the last of the drug out of the system and also to stop you from comparing your experience too well with your friends - and thus see through the deception. Which was too early, because a few tests remained. In your case following up the counselling regarding Eiraton and Kliethe. In your dream you told Eiraton how to deal with Kliethe. And yesterday you told Kliethe how to deal with Eiraton. Or so you thought. I admit that was just another dream sent to you. Nothing was happening between the two of them, that was a test given to you. Honestly Kliethe is still struggling with something similar between Eiraton and yourself and Eiraton tries to figure out a triangle of betrayal involving you, Ishtar and Neophoros."

"Oh - Eugh! Where are they now?"
"Still asleep. This is your morning, Aphrodite."
"So Eiraton wasn't taken out of the education? Where is he now?"
"He's been brought elsewhere, together with Salika and Riaton. In fact the only ones taken out were Gephion and Sudema. Gephion wasn't emphatic enough and Sudema was too preoccupied with her own believed excellency. She kept looking down upon the rest of you and these people will never become good councilors. Now, Aphrodite, you are destined for greatness. I can feel that. This dawn will see you leave the old ways and go forward towards new challenges. This day will see you traverse from apprentice to master. And by tradition we use to mark that transition by a re-birth fitting for each of our students."

"A re-birth?"
"Yes. You belong to the water element, dear. Then there's fire in you as well. And dawn. You will be re-born into the new circle by ascending from the waves and meet your new colleagues on this beach. Now, let me show you...

*o*o*

Aphrodite was swimming under water, just like Eumonia had told her. It was still dark beneath the surface, quiet and slightly chilly, so she kept herself shielded from the cold, green water. She swam out quite a bit before she turned around again. Here she dived down almost to the bottom of the sea, or at least until her hands gently touched the soft sand. Then she felt it. The smooth hardness of a sea-shell, one of those almost round ones. A huge one! Orange patterned. On a whim she picked it up, and with it firmly clasped in her right hand she returned to the shore. Rising out of the water, she faced the beach with the rising sun at her back, colouring her fair hair in a burning orange hue and making her cast an elongated, soft-edged shadow across the water and the sand.

Now she found even more burning torches stuck in the sand and a huge bonfire was crackling a bit away. And Eumonia was not alone anymore. Together with her stood Alpheus, Neophoros, Ishtar and five women Aphrodite didn't recognize. One of them held a cup and an amphora made of shining bronze and another two of them were carrying that large, red textile and a smaller white one. When they saw Aphrodite appear they were all cheering and calling her name, waving to her to come ashore. Ishtar was beaming like a sun, she looked truly happy for her friend's sake. Eumonia had told that the other goddess had passed her test yesterday and was now going east to a pantheon there to begin her work, however she had asked to stay for Aphrodite's initiation.

The ladies with the textile came running out from the beach when Aphrodite was still knee-deep in the water and before she knew it they had dressed her magically in a white silk peplo which seemed to be floating around her like pre-dawn mist rather than being worn. Next they swathed the red textile around her, draped it as a toga, the fluttering silk resembling burning fire. In that instance Aphrodite found herself completely dry in spite of just having ascended out of the water. Even her hair appeared dry and it fell around her like silk, still pinkish from the rising sun and almost luminescent. Somehow she managed to walk ashore without wetting her crimson toga. She noted that it was decorated with golden leaves and flowers on the hems.

"I'm Maniva," said one of the women who had dressed her, a tall, cocoa-skinned goddess with mirth in her dark, intelligent eyes.
"And I'm Sreta," said the other one, who was short and plum-lipped and almost as fair as Aphrodite herself, her gray eyes sparkling with excitement. They walked on each side of Aphrodite as she came ashore in triumph, still carrying that sea-shell as if it was the greatest of treasures. Which it was in a way. She knew it was giving her luck and it would become her talisman. Now she noted the fifth woman, who stepped out to welcome her. It was Dione, her mother! That made Aphrodite more happy than ever, Dione had finally understood her daughter's strife in life and accepted what she did. Learning that made Aphrodite so moved she almost got teary eyed.

Not surprisingly Dione became the first one to come out and give Aphrodite a big hug.
"I am so proud of you my girl," she was laughing in the hair of her daughter while holding her. "I am so very very proud of you, Aphrodite, that you have gone through these hard teachings and done it with such excellence too. Eumonia told me you're her master class student! She told me what you have acquired and what you can yet become. And I'd really love for you to make that happen. It would be so fantastic for you, dear!"
"What has she actually told?" Aphrodite asked while hugging her mother back.
"That you are emphatic, clever, sensual and understanding. A good listener with a great heart. That you can handle praise as well as criticism. And several other things. I am so proud of you, dear."

After Dione let go of her daughter, Eumonia herself handed Aphrodite the bronze cup, and from it the re-born goddess drank the sweetest of wine, feeling how it swept through her body and warming her, invigorating her. Meanwhile Ishtar took Dione's and Sreta's hands and Sreta in turn reached out to a fourth woman, a tall brunette who in turn had connected with Alpheus. And finally Neophoros, holding on to Dione had taken the pudgy redhead who held Alpheus in his other hand. They began to sing and dance around Aphrodite and Eumonia while the sun was rising higher in the sky, the clouds turning from indigo to pink to white and the shadows shrinking.

The seagulls had given the beach a try before learning that it was already taken and with disappointed calls they had lifted off again, out over the waters. The goddesses and gods sang a song about love and understanding, about men and women and with quite a few dirty lines. Aphrodite giggled at those, although she wasn't that embarrassed, it was more like she felt relief. Utter relief paired with a tired and pleasant happiness and a joyful desire to kiss and to hug the whole world. Including that annoying god Eiraton, wherever he had gone.

Finally all the dancers slumped down in the sand and now nymphs arrived carrying baskets with breakfast and soft blankets to sit down upon. At that moment, Aphrodite realized she was famished and they all began partying on what was in the baskets, the mood merry and festive and with Aphrodite - reborn from the waves – as the central piece.

She drank more of the honey-sweetened wine and became more or less tipsy, and at one moment she joked with Ishtar:
"I though, when I went down there, that the sea-foam looked like semen."
"Haha who's semen could that be then?" her friend giggled back, where she half lied, trying to make up her mind about finishing her chicken wing or not. Then she burped and giggled even more at that faux pas.
"They say it was somewhere around here Cronos defeated Ouranos," the redhead goddess said. Her name was Mnemosyne, Aphrodite had learned. " They also say that Cronos slized off his…" she finished the sentence by making a cutting gesture down by her crotch and Neophoros made a pained face of empathy.
"… and his dingdong became shark food," Ishtar smirked and burped yet another time.

"There's no sharks around here," Maniva said where she was sitting cross-legged, and looking oddly sober.
"Nevertheless," Mnemosyne said. "They say his cock fell down in the sea and that it sprouted semen all over Cyprus and that's why this island is blessed with such love. And that some of this semen can still be seen in the waves which kisses the sand."
"Ick! You're disgusting," Maniva huffed and Eumonia laughed and said:
"You have quite some imagination, dear. But do you really think it's proper among these youths?"
"Don't worry about us, we can handle it," Aphrodite assured the older goddesses. "Although I'd hate to picture myself being reborn among Ouranos' semen!"

*o*o*

About an hour later there wasn't a single crumble left in the breakfast baskets and the gods and goddesses had started to gather themselves and their wits again. Standing up, brushing off and straightening their clothes. Smiling a bit at each other almost embarrassed by their indulgence. While Neophoros helped Aphrodite up, Eumonia turned to them and said:
"He's here now!"
"Who?" Aphrodite asked.
Your employer to be," she nodded to her right. "Zeus."
"Zeus! He came here himself?"
"That he did," her teacher replied, and wasn't there a trace of awe in her voice.

When Aphrodite followed Eumonia's gaze towards the sand hills, she beheld a man sitting on a stone. A tall, fit and tanned man dressed in blue and golden and with hair so blond that it was almost white which curled down over his broad shoulders. But what stroke her mostly was those eyes. Piercing sapphires which were regarding her as if their owner could see right into her and in an instant know every secret she carried.

That was Zeus. Ruler of Olympos, king of all the gods.