There weren't many answers the next day or even in the following weeks, but Hērmês hadn't paid much mind to that. After the explosion, the girls were plucked out the sky by giant eagles as they fell towards the earth, unconscious while everyone else quickly scoured the valley searching for Dodie as the boy never appeared afterwards though Hērmês knew that the boy had already made his way to the Netherworld. Leaneíras had been placed in a giant bubble filled with seawater, floating upright and motionless as her Father and Apóllōn looked over her while Hekátē and Kírkē worked on placing the mist back over the eyes of the screaming mortals that cried about the end of the world and somehow still managed to watch his Leaneíras' recovering. The water that she was submerged in swirled around her as the grime and blood was pulled off of her, revealing rows of bruises and cuts that spoke of her adventures. Her friends and family wanted to demand if she was alright, but Hērmês and Poseidón were standing beside the bubble with their fists clenched, and a look of grimness deeply woven into their features as they stared at the girl.
It was obvious that they wanted no one near her at the time, and Percy only managed to slip in when it was clear that he was not going to be separated from his sister any longer, baring his teeth at the two gods when they turned to look at him. Though neither of them could say anything when Sally Jackson drove her car right through the barrier, and Paul alongside their little family from the Little Dominican Republic stumbled out the car in awe and fear as they gaze around the place though they cried out in pain when they caught sight of Leaneíras' as her newly divine body worked to heal her and accommodate the fact that she and her two friends whom were also unconscious made themselves into the earthen goddesses.
She was resting while the world continued around her, and Hērmês knew that he should pay attention so that he could answer any questions that she would have when she did the fact that they somehow managed to actually craft a new land for them to reside alongside a weird animal that looked like it was from Pokémon for them to control or the fact that the Jaxson pantheon really existed, and she now hand hundreds of worshippers that were not his children, praying to her.
He should be doing a lot of things actually, like speaking to his children—both greek and roman—as they clamored for his attention or worried over their stepmother (who would no doubt kill them herself if she heard them call her that). He should be helping Îris, and the other heralds guide the humans to make explanations of how the world had almost literally ended and the fact that gods and monsters actually existed and no they were not demons; they ruled the Heavens and the world first and that was nothing but Diónusos' theatre kid coming out to play. He should be preparing to guide a bunch of souls down to the underworld for proper burial.
But—
A hand pressed against the bubble, and he blinked his eyes to see that Leaneíras was looking back at him.
Her eyes; her Eden-green eyes that peeked from behind her languid eyelashes of velvet-black; were tired, filled with exhaustion and pain he was not privy to, and her hair; the same shade as the dark side of the moon as if if Nýx had taken the feathers of her dark wings and placed them upon her head, flowed down her back and teased her skin; her scarred skin that spoke of pains and triumphs and adventures that he knew not and the battle that she had just fought but she was... she was still the most beautiful person that he had ever bore witness to.
Leaneíras.
His Leaneíras; so beautiful that a sculptor could not have fashioned her seraph's ears and pixie's nose any better.
She smiled at him, soft—softer than he had ever seen before. And in that one moment, he could see how young that she was, and yet... she looked much older as if she had lived lifetimes. He reached for her, not paying mind to the way that the divinity in her blood had cast out her mortality and when she clasped hands with him... when she bought his knuckles to her lips and kissed them... he knew that things would be alright.
Leaneíras awakened, staring blankly at the ceiling of her cabin.
On the side of her was her brother, curled around her as he slept. His nightmares had been horrible, and her own were nothing to laugh at as her mind struggled to make sense of the worlds that she traveled to and the breach of the universes that she kept crossing with no control. She turned to look at Percy, and in his face, she could see Livia and she could see Ariadne... her fingers traced his face shakily, remembering the worlds where she didn't remember her brother and her family and loved ones.
Leaneíras shivered, fingers flaring with mageia as she murmured: "Tenebris somnum!" sending him and their family that took residence within the cabin into a deeper slumber. Crawling out of the bed, she stood on shaky feet, one hand curled around her stomach as she headed for the door. Kirke had screeched when she caught sight over her core which had shattered into so many pieces that it was miracle that it had even began to heal. The broken glass inside her was smooth at the edges, but she could almost feel the jagged edges from where her mageia core had collasped within itself as her ascension took hold. It was unsurprising painful and she was restricted to doing low level spells for at least a year; a decade if her parents— biological and stepparents— had anything to say about it.
Her feet took her to the beach; the glow of her eyes forcing the harpies to back away in fear. She kept walking until she was almost knee deep in the water.
"Hmp," came an unpleasant and unwelcome voice behind her. "So, you survived."
Leaneíras turned slowly, coming face to face with her own face once more.
"Pterodactyl," Leaneíras greeted, with the tilt of her head. Her eyes were starting to glow just a bit. She was so tired of bitches that were twice and thrice her age acting half of it.
"Why, you—aughhh..."
Leaneíras punched her in the nose and since she was no longer mortal, it did break though unfortunately, not for long.
"Listen, you cock-sucking," Leaneíras sneered, moving closer while her fists flared in power. Her next punches were breaking jaws and blacking eyes. "Cum-guzzling..." the goddess gaped, stumbling backwards. "Birdbrained cunt!" Her hand moved through the air, even though she didn't really have the strength nor the patience to feel anything. "The next time you interfere with my life, I'll bury you so deep into Tartara that he wouldn't know that you were there! Fuck off!" Leaneíras was surrounded in a swirl of green and at the same moment, her mark burned.
"You insolent little brat!"
"Fuck you!" The demigoddess... no, the goddess shrieked and her mageia burst from her in waves. "I could have let your insults passed. The gods in heaven knows that they meant nothing to me. I could have even forgiven you for prancing around wearing my face like you were my Mom's third child. I could have forgiven you for all of your damn stalking because when you look this good, it makes sense that people are threatened."
"Threatened of you?"
"Clearly!" Leaneíras snapped, waving her hand sharply through the air and her mageia struck alongside it and the world trembled. "What other reason did you have to attack me? Huh? You may not know me well enough, but even before the gods and monsters, coming after me was never a smart decision. I always got even and if I didn't get even, I went lower. And if I didn't go lower, then I went to hell."
"You miserable girl," she hissed, stumbling backwards as Lea drew closer. Hatred seethed in Peitho's eyes. "You think you can defeat me — a goddess?"
Aside from hatred... there was fear. And there was a lot of it.
"And that's your issue. You are a sorry excuse for a woman and an embarrassment to women of all mankind. What was it that that they claimed you said? I believe it was: 'My immortal rage shall toss her over with a vengeance. She claims equality to me. If she wants to live as a god, she can be judged by the gods.' "
Peitho blinked, and the girl appeared abruptly in front of her. Her eyes, sparked with excess mageia, as she bore down upon the elder. "Well, it's judgement day, Peitho, and I am a god."
Peitho's eyes widen as she looked into Leaneíras eyes; those eyes that were the darkest shade of green, like the sea that threatened to drown sailors on a stormy night. A gaze that made her feel hunted, like a rabbit next to a fox.
"Truthfully, I should leave my fucking footprint in your face, but I have something much better." The girl murmured ominously. And around them, her mageia pulsed once more, shining bright enough to cover the stars that resided in the heavens, as the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover's whisper twirled about her; as all the lives that she lived bore down within her soul, and the magic of blood and bone and tears shed; from the battles that were not hers to fight and wounds that were not hers to gain; the magic to make the sanest man go mad... all of it converge around the two.
"This is your time of fire, Peitho. Your hour of trail, when the storm is at the door, and all is darkest."
"What are you—"
"You neglected your duties. You succumbed to flattery and vanity." Leaneíras placed her suddenly bleeding thumb on her forehead and the palm of her hand on her heart, seeking the seat of the goddess' power. "O you bright sky of heaven, you swift-winged breezes, you river-waters, and infinite laughter of the waves of sea," Around them, the wind picked up in speed and the water swirled around their legs and above them, the clouds parted in surprise as her mageia seeped into the ground and back again as she now held office over the earth as this was right that Zeus gave her. "O universal mother Earth, and you, all-seeing orb of the sun, to you I call! To this one, who clad her delicate body in a silvery robe with sweetness and charm on her tongue. To this one, with her honeyed enchantments; the manager of the human heart. To this one, that has the young in her keep all over the earth, since this right from Zeus is given her."
The mageia built further around her, and the world was painted green until... Leaneíras paused, her brow furrowed. The mageia settled as a look of confusion appeared on her face. She gazed at her; and one couldn't help but to notice how different that she looked when her sea-green eyes returned as dull as they were before Hermes came into her life.
And then she smiled... a small thing, but cruel in its shape. Her eyes blazed, and everything in a thousand-mile radius felt fear lock them into place. Danger... Danger... Danger... "To this one, this goddess of marriage; who works alongside Eros, the eldest born among the blessed gods and unsmiling Kháos, vast this way and that, no limit below it, no base, no place to settle for the blessings of fate assigned to every being; and Ζεύς, as well as the other gods and man, must submit to them. To this one, who slayed her kháos-blessed King Phoroneus, bringer of peace, fire-bringer, law-giver, and primordial king of Argos."
Peitho flinched, but Leaneíras paid it no mind as her mageia picked up in strength and ancient Kháos spread her dark wings across starry Ouranós, around what was once wide-bosomed Gaía, cradled infinite laughing Póntos, and brightened dim Tártaros; she took hold of Éros and together, they pushed their powers within the wreathed spindle of Anánkē, into the threads of the Moirai. Together, all three dark Kháos and graceful Éros and rich-haired Leaneíras, under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions unraveled the eternal binding that held Peitho together, forcing her from a goddess of great stature to that of a mortal babe, and cast her thread aside for the Moirai to weave a new tapestry where she would be reborn alongside her blessing from khaos who would be reborn also and but he will not join with her in love.
"May you burn and fall and fall and burn again."
There was a moment of silence as Peitho seized in place, her head flew back, and the onslaught of the heavens was stripped from her as she screamed, filling the raging fire of immortality burn her within. Leaneíras took from her, her voice with her honeyed enchantments, and her gifts spearheading the power into the goddess' demidivine children; most who unfortunately just became orphans. Leaneíras winced at the pain that erupted from her core but she held on as the body in her hold shuddered and trembled and crumbled into ash that blew away in the wind, and the girl stood there silently in the aftermath.
Arms wrapped around her waist, and a face pressed against her neck. "Leaneíras... Lea... my Lea..." Hermes stated. She placed her hands over his, but she still did not turn to him, gazing up at the stars. The constellation of his mother and aunts waved at her, but she looked past that... past them... she looked into the rift. A kiss was pressed to her neck, and she felt more than heard him pleading for her to return to him.
"Khaíre, Ermís," she whispered, bringing his hand to her lips to press a kiss against it. "Tis seems as I have found you."
"How will you manage to bear all this, my Leaneíras?"
Leaneíras looked at the water around her ankles helplessly, leaning into his hold and saying, half-desperate, "I don't know where to put it down."
"Let me help you bear it then," Hermes said from behind her. "I would bear your every burden for you if you'd let me. If you wanted, I'd go anywhere with you. I would look after you."
She shuddered, turning into his embrace and burying her face into his chest.
"Lea...?"
"You know... I was dead before I met you, I was born the day you loved me, and my love for you will keep me alive, forever." She thought back to the Hermes that had asked her how she would find her own. I know the way to my heart. "And I'd choose you; in a hundred different lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you and I'd choose you."
"I will choose you also. Every single time." The god pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I love you and I will love you until the sea swallows the sun, until the stars burn out, until the moon shatters, and until time tears itself apart." He pulled her almost impossibly closer, relishing in the warmth of their marks. She was almost lost to him forever. Anger swelled within him as he thought about the conspirators that wanted her away from him. And for what? Attention? He would never love them. He would never care for them. Leaneíras was the one to hold his heart in his hands, and they were nothing more than mere ants. He didn't understand why they protested so much against his blessing. She was his divine right! Though, he figured it must have been because he was the only one left of the Twelve Ruling Olympioi that had no blessing before she had been born. It mattered no longer now that he had her and only her in his arms once again... now and forever. "Leaneíras, I can't lose you again. I won't lose you again." If he had to chain her to his side, carve out space for her in his own bones... he'd rip apart any that would dare to take her from him again. "I'd look for you everywhere in every universe. Every fiber of my being and existence calls out to you. I'd fight heaven and earth to make sure this universe, the one where I belong to you, is the one true universe. Please, my blessing. Please, I wouldn't be able to—"
His words were stolen from him as she kissed him, underneath the stars in heavens, her hands cradled his face, and she kissed him. Pressing her tightly against him, she could almost feel his emotions pour into her, though it may be the mark on her skin sweltering with heat. When his tongue slipped into her mouth, she just ignored it and everything else, losing herself in everything that was him. Hermes. Her Hermes.
When he pulled back so that she could breathe, and she had... was so distracted by him, that she almost forgot that was a thing, she felt the world shimmer around them, and she could hear him continuing to murmur words into her skin as he pressed kisses into her neck. "I love every part of you. even the parts you don't love. I'll love all of you in this universe and every other universe. I love you and I will love you until I fade and if there's life after that, I love you then. I will only ever love you."
Leaneíras shuddered, sensing the devotion woven into the words, as she forced her to pull away. Her eyes darted around them, and she laughed dryly once she recognized that he brought her to a fight club. He gazed at her, and his eyes were a darker shade of green than she had thought possible like looking into the abyss of the world and still finding it wanting. It was almost as if she was looking upon his true form; the onslaught of the heavens and earth; of the underworld and the wild combating in his gaze. She could pick out the desire and the love that seemingly poured from him in waves, and she could do nothing more than to kiss him again.
"I love you so much that I could risk everything," Leaneíras murmured against his lips. She'd risk her life over and over again for him. "Even if time passes and everything changes, even if the world ends, my darling, I would love only you."
The two lovers were silent as they held each other, basking in each other's presence.
"And to think they wanted to interfere with this," he hummed. "I bet Kalupsṓ is regretting spelling you and raping Percy back—" Leaneíras tensed, and it took a moment of extended silence and the rapid cooling of his mark to realize that the girl was no longer by his side. A flare of familiar mageia burst over the metaphysical plane deep within the Underworld right where...
Hērmês laughed in delight, spinning into the air, heading for Kalupsṓ's form that was in considerably more danger than before as he chased after his blessing from kháos.
WORD COUNT: 3335
THINGS TO KNOW:
1) Phoroneus ('bringer of a price') was a culture-hero of the Argolid, fire-bringer, law giver, and primordial king of Argos.
2) Phoroneus was the son of the river god Inachus and either Melia, the Oceanid or Argia, the embodiment of the Argolid itself: "Inachus, son of Oceanus, begat Phoroneus by his sister Argia"
3) Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 21. 1 :"Having turned again to the market-place [of Argos], we come to the memorial of Kerdo (Cerdo, the Wily One) [perhaps Peithō], the wife of Phoroneus, and to a temple of Asklēpiós. The [nearby] sanctuary of Ártemis, surnamed Peithō (Persuasion) [or perhaps a temple to both Ártemis and Peithō], is another offering of Hypermnestra after winning the trial to which she was brought by her father because of Lynkeus (Lynceus)."
4) [N.B. The Scholiast on Euripides' Orestes says Peithō was the wife of Phoroneus, the first king of Argos and Sikyon, and the mother of his successors Aigialeos (Aegialeus) and Apis. This may explain why she was worshipped in the two towns. She was similar to Harmoníā, goddess-daughter of Aphrodítē, in this respect who was represented as the first queen of Thebes.]
COMMENTS FROM THE AUTHOR:
1) The small plot twist. I thought of this back in TLO when I found this little detail while researching Peithō, but like I was constantly telling everyone that her blessing hadn't been born yet.
1A) In consequence of her attacking her own damn blessing, and then turning around & attacking another blessed pair; that is of an Olympioi Major and the daughter of Kronídēs, then she in turn will become mortal, and will quite honestly, never see immortality ever again. She's gone. Out of there. Always out of reach.
1B) Y'all know the Fallen series where every time Daniel found Lucinda when she was 17; she just burst into flames & was reborn? Yeah, that's what's happening. Except it'd be every 16 years since Lea is physically 16yrs old.
2) Percy has no choice but to ascend after Tartara. The sea grants him Phórkus old territory since the old god betrayed the sea and its people.
3) Lea's gonna be so horrified to learn that the pantheon that she accidentally started has really settled in. Gods, they are about to be harassing the fuck out of Sally & Paul alongside the people of LDR that she befriended.
3A) People at her school: omg, i went/go to school with actual gods?
3B) People that taught her: she was a god in disguise?
3C) her old therapist: well no wonder she didnt care about things. she was a god.
3D) People she got into fist fights with: she only won because she was a god
3E) catholics, jews, christians, mormons and all the little subdivisions: she's a demon from hell. do not let her looks fool you! God said the antichrist blah blah blah blah
3F) Ζεύς: they said they will take the heavens? Hḗrē, baby, pack your bags. We're going on vacation!
3G) Lea chasing after Ζεύς: hey, no. take this back! take this back!
3H) Ζεύς: nuh uh. no take backs.
3I) The simple fact that Ζεύς knows they dont actually want to rule is why he isnt trying to destroy them. if anything, they'll be another subdivision from him to rule over which means more paperwork.
4) Hērmês in prev chapters: I will punish Peithō for her actions.
4A) Lea: Yeah, No.
5) Hērmês is absolutely brimming with frustration that he can't touch her for another year, but you know what. It's okay. There are other ways to bring her pleasure without taking her virginity & as long as they are far, far, far, far, far away from her parents and brother.
6) It's also kind of crazy because Lea has lived lifetimes. She is quite literally an old soul, but her Mama gave birth to her almost 17yrs ago, so they're going to say that she's almost 17.
7) I might get around to actually writing the sequel, but for the most part... this universe is closed. Though be on the lookout for the scenes that I cut and everything. That will be posted seperately.