As the festivities commenced the next evening, the people of Thebes and the guests from abroad were all spreading rumors of what had happened the day previous. There was a spirit of inquiry in the air, speculating as to whether they'd witnessed a lover's spat where Hercules ended an affair with Deianeira, the comely actress who had been banished from the city that very night.
Nobody could confirm that Hercules ever had a mistress or even a girlfriend before Megara, but because he'd never given them anything to gossip about before, they were eager to speculate and devour the speculations of others.
Their arrival at the party in all their regalia sparked interest from all the guests, who saw Hercules arrive with his wife in his arms and then carry her to the nearest dining couch.
"I was wondering if we'd hear from you today," Megarion said, passing them a bowl of mixed grapes and pitted cherries.
"I told him we would," Cassandra said.
"And how was your night at the palace?" Megara asked her, but her quick glance toward her brother let it be known she was actually asking both of them at once but didn't want that question overheard.
"Antigone had a delightfully morbid appreciation for art, so staying in her room was entertaining enough. I think I will make it my permanent office when I start entertaining petitioners who want predictions. I've got the place in Delphi, but there's something so thrilling about absorbing all that rebellious energy she left behind."
"Just try not to be too much like Antigone," Megara huffed. "My father hated her, so I should've liked her, but she was a bully with skewed priorities."
"Don't worry, I've already figured out who I am."
"And who are you, exactly?"
Megara and Cassandra whipped around at Creon's voice as if they were a pair of sisters whose father had found them playing with a toy they stole from friends at school.
"You know who Cassandra is, Father," Megarion said. "You don't think you're losing your mind already, do you? And before your teeth, too…" He shook his head in mock pity.
"I know the name!" Creon snapped. "My son has spoken highly of you, girl, but you're nothing more than a commoner from Athens. You're not a princess, so you'll bring us no alliances. Whose interests do you advance by sitting on the Throne beside my son?"
"My own," Cassandra said. She smiled maliciously at the king. "I've known your son long enough by now that I know he's bothered by the sorts of girls you usually throw at him. When's the last time you talked to him and listened when he had something to say?"
Megarion mimicked Hercules's posture by standing behind Cassandra. "She saw me when I was pathetic and suffering every day, and she pursued me anyway. All these others are only interested now that I'm suddenly healthy. You don't know what it's like for a woman to love you and care for your wellbeing, or this wouldn't be a question."
Creon leaned forward, his sunken wine-dark eyes gleaming as his hands were folded behind his back. He might be hiding anything from a knife to a snake, and it would be equally predictable. "You are all children, exchanging politics for hedonism. You will be the death of this city, and you expect me to watch without complaint?"
"I'm gonna need you to back up," Hercules told Creon. "This is still a sacred time for your son, but nothing's more sacred to me than my friends and the woman I love. Right now, you're a little too close to both of them, so don't push your luck."
Creon straightened his back. "I am the chief advisor to the king. He has thus far blocked all my attempts to launch a contest to choose the best bride in all of Greece for him to make his queen and has instead swanned about with this oracle."
"You're the same matchmaker who tried to set me up with Adonis, and he's been stringing Helen along for years," Megara pointed out to him. "I know the princesses and noblewomen eligible to date my brother, and I'd reject them too if you let me pick for him. It's time to infuse something new into the bloodline. Hasn't our family had enough of the same old thing?"
"You'll not ridicule me for seeking the best for my son and my nation," Creon snarled.
"Aren't you the one who hired that theater troupe from last night?" Hercules asked. "I seem to recall they mentioned you paid them directly. Why would you pick the troupe headed up by Meg's ex and his lover?"
"I'm sure I don't recognize one vagrant from the next," Creon said. "Megara's taste in men has always baffled me, but she never consulted me in any of her choices."
Hercules let that comment roll off his back. He stood behind Megara with his hands on both her shoulders. "I still think you had some reason to select them. Thebes is a city steeped in culture; there must have been dozens of theater companies clambering for that slot, and you gave it to them. They must have come highly recommended."
"Theater types are a disreputable lot," Creon said. "One is no better than the other, but theater is sacred to Dionysus, so we must pay homage to the god's tastes."
"I'd be careful badmouthing the theater," Megara said. "Dionysus has been known to punish our family any time we criticize his domain. You wouldn't want him to get as tired of you as I am."
Creon lifted his head so he could stare Megara down along the slope of his nose. "Your boundless audacity will not erase the fact you are still my daughter," he told her.
"But she is my wife, and you'll speak to her with respect," Hercules said. "All I have to do is swing an arm, and you'll never recover. My patience will only hold for so long. Don't underestimate the strain you've put me through in not punishing you for your many transgressions."
Creon sighed. "Eternal youth will surely halt the development of your wisdom as you can never mature, but I hope when your daughter is born, she is as vexing to you as mine has been to me."
"The ones who never vexed you are gone," Megara pointed out to him. "See what good that did them? I'd have thought you'd beg Megarion to marry a seer so that she could foresee all the times your inability to compromise would ruin someone's life. Maybe your grandchildren will be born with some of that talent, and they'll all know how to avoid you like all your children wished we could."
"I foresaw something else, all on my own," Megarion said. "You're going to go help set up for tonight's musical act."
Creon rounded on his son. "You dare–" he started, then remembered himself. "Fine. But I advise you, as your chief advisor, that you ought to choose more wisely the next time you delegate tasks."
"I thought you liked music," Megarion said. "It was my whole life growing up, so it is still of great importance to me. I've entrusted you with tonight's entertainment, and so I expect you to prove your trustworthiness."
Creon rearranged his black robes and brushed past his son without further comment.
"I'm sorry you've got him to look forward to," Megarion said to Cassandra. "There's still time to change your mind."
"I like him better than my parents," Cassandra said. "He's the bleak rain cloud I always knew was there, but everyone else ignored."
"Your parents are so nice!" Hercules protested.
"Yeah," Cassandra shuddered. "A little too nice…"
"I'd like to meet them, then lock them in a room with my father," Megara said. "We can make wagers and see who will come out alive."
"That's… you're kidding, right?" Hercules asked.
"We should try it!" Cassandra said.
"We'll need to invite them here for the wedding," Megarion mused. "It might be interesting to see what happens when the in-laws clash, but we ought to control the scenario."
"I'm just glad my parents have never met Creon," Hercules said. "My mortal ones, anyway. I'm sure my divine parents have noticed him by now… I just wish they'd done something about him before now."
"I'm sure they did," Megara said. "They took it out on the rest of us any time he did something bullheaded and impious."
"I'm sorry," Hercules squeezed Megara's shoulders. "Now that I'm a god, I'll only mete out divine justice on the individuals that deserve it. I wish my parents did that, too."
"You'll have plenty of opportunities to show us your version of divine justice," Cassandra said. "Starting tonight."
Hercules whipped his head around, and that was when he caught sight of a group of young noblewomen all seething and marching toward the royal half of the dining hall.
"Ugh," the twins said in unison.
Galatea rushed out of the crowd and joined them, panting. "Sorry! I couldn't stop them!"
"What do you mean?" Hercules asked her.
"They've been waiting for hours, and now you're here. Theseus and I tried to distract them, but–"
"I'll handle this," Hercules said. He leaned down and kissed Megara's cheek, then strode up to the stampede of noblewomen. His golden aura flared, and he raised his arms to either side. "Stop!" he commanded.
The whole stampede stopped to stare at him.
"Which one of you was invited to address the king?" he asked.
They looked at one another as if the girl in question was about to speak up. None of them did.
"Right, so I'm gonna assume that you're about to do something extremely unladylike and prove you're not much of a catch for the king. All of you should be embarrassed, looking like a flock of seagulls! Either you approach slowly, individually, and with respect, or you'll have to spend the rest of the party outside. Do you understand me?"
Megara raised a brow higher with each sentence he spoke.
"You've trained him well," Cassandra observed.
"He said all of that without stuttering," Galatea marveled.
"He's a big, tough boy," Megara snickered and popped a grape into her mouth. "He's going to be an excellent father."
The women started arguing with Hercules, but he stood firm.
One of them tried to run around him, but Hercules disappeared, then reappeared right in front of her, so she had to skid to a halt.
"Get back," he ordered her in a voice that invited no arguments.
Megara got up from the couch and stood beside him. "Do you have any idea how attractive you are right now?" she whispered to him.
Hercules folded his arms and smirked down at her. "I was hoping you'd be a little proud of me…"
"Very." Megara leaned an elbow on his shoulder and rested a hand on her hip. "You do excellent work."
She recognized some of the girls as she surveyed this crop of teens. They were some of the ones who chased after Hercules from time to time, and he'd now reduced some of them to tears of disappointed entitlement. "Guess I won't need to break out the dangerous cutlery anymore."
"Unless you want to."
"I'd rather take you back and get cozy. Now that you've scared off the ravenous beasts, you deserve a reward or two."
Hercules offered her his elbow to escort her back just as the first few notes of a song started up. "Wait… that sounds like…" Hercules slowly turned, then gasped at who he saw onstage.
He'd aged out of his sad boy phase, the bags under his eyes were gone, and he'd evened out his haircut and facial hair, but there was no mistaking Orpheus.
"No way!" Hercules and the girls behind him were equally in shock, but Megara only laughed.
"It's amazing that even you can be starstruck."
"I've met him, but… It's been a long time!"
"This one goes out to my old pal Hercules!" Orpheus called from the stage, pointing directly at Hercules. His song had a catchy rhythm to it, and its lyrics were all about how Hercules had grown to learn how to know when the time was right to strike and how he'd achieved greatness.
Hercules cheered at the end of that song and looked to Megara for approval.
Rather than strain herself, Megara kissed his arm. "Now we need a song for Harmonia!" she said over the roaring cheers of the audience.
Hercules beamed at her. "I can't wait!"
Theseus joined them. "I'm surprised Orpheus came out of retirement. I heard he got with a forest nymph and vanished from the public eye."
"Happens to the best of us," Hercules sighed. "I'd disappear into the woods if that's how I could be with Meg, too."
Theseus chuckled. "I'll hire him for my next party, too. Maybe then I'll get you out of hiding to come celebrate with us."
"What do you have planned?" Megara asked. Her eyes slid across the hall to where Galatea and Cassandra were chatting about something they couldn't overhear. "You wouldn't happen to have news, would you? Something nobody else knows?"
Theseus smiled, his amusement the only answer. "I know someone who'd rather tell you, my perceptive friend, so I won't ruin it." He led the way back to the dining couches and welcomed Galatea to sit beside him.
Megara and Hercules exchanged a brief glance. They already knew what the news would be, but with another Orpheus song starting up, they decided to let that rest for another time.