Solar heat seared her skin. There was a ball of salty liquid in her throat.
Athena awoke with a painful inhale. As she breathed out came the regurgitation of viscid seawater stained in red. Charybdis spat her in the middle of the ocean with other masses and floating debris, all under the sun now toasting her dry. She clung to a flat wooden surface trying to breathe small amounts of oxygen.
ARES. She was with Ares. She could not doubt that powerful hold, so familiar, too protective. It was him; she chose to turn in her life to uncertainty but he was stupid enough to meddle.
Athena moved around the bobbing ruins, eyes reddened with stinging seawater. A glare of iron from armor reflected the sunlight and she saw Ares hunched with his face underwater. The Queen battled blurring vision from lack of air, wading and pushing with the little strength she had. The base of her nose felt hallow and out flowed the same wretched crimson. But she had to get to him; she had to raise his head so he could breathe.
With a grunt and large swig of her own blood, Athena reached out to Ares. She turned him over, all layers of extra weight in his armor which she needed to free from him.
Dark brackish water quickly turned red around them. A tapered iron rod was punched through his right chest, fastened to the floating raft. He wasn't breathing. His pulse was faint. If she would try to pull him off the rod, she might not have much strength to keep them afloat. Either way there was a repercussion, and Athena, for the first time felt dread about losing him. Not in a manner as losing an ally, but something else… something deeper and more painful; before she knew it, she was tearing desperately.
Before giving in to a numbing blackness, she might have just seen white wings shadow above her. It was galloping midair with platinum mane scuffling in speedy wind.
"Athena? My Queen…"
Athena blinked back tears at the voice of a girl which made her awaken to the present. She turned to the door where Nike's head was snuck in her Queenschamber.
"Um, you said to inform you if the King awakens…"
As if her feet had a mind of their own, Athena was already out in the open, traversing endless stairs and hallways. A single concrete bridge over a waterfall connected the tower of infirmary to the rest of the palace. The fading sunlight turned all in fiery orange.
She slowed midway her destination upon hearing some arguments echoing through the balustrade. Two voices, one of youth and the other… ugh. A rough sigh escaped her throat.
Drawing the curtains to the four-walled room, she was greeted with the scent of fresh plaster and chamomile tea. The voices were much distinct now…
"Ah, wife," Ares hung his head behind an equally agitated Asceplius standing over his bed, "Will you so – kindly – tell this prick to shut his hole and just bring me what I want or so I wouldn't have to remind him WHO I AM!"
So this is the husband she had been shedding tears for in almost a week – an over six-foot tall muscular baby, black bearded, his kingly ragged self squabbling with a boy within the first few minutes of consciousness. Athena's eyes strayed from Ares to the young medicus, inquiring without words.
Asceplius scratched the back of his neck, "I uh… he, I mean, the King wanted wine."
Her jaw dropped. "…wine?
The shrug on Asceplius looked exasperated.
"Did you just – Athena, did he just make face at my order?" Ares interrupted, making the youth pinch his temples.
"I told you, again… alcohol should be your least intake, or best none at all – "
"Boy I'd only awakened because there was no more goddamn wine in my blood, now GET – ME – THAT – DRINK!"
"I will NOT! It's the tea for you."
"I don't drink PISS!"
"Well perhaps you'd awakened earlier had you not been so used to alcohol!"
"WHY YOU PIECE OF – "
"Thank you for your services, Asceplius," said the Queen as she slipped her arm through his and gently led them both out the room, "I have been tipped of new herbs from Demeter. Mayhap you could peruse them? I've heard of this oil we could concoct from milk thistle. You see, humans have become recently susceptible to diseases caused by too much eating of animal fat…"
"Ugh, humans… ever so adept discovering diseases," Asceplius rolled his eyes, made a few more comments before they were out the hallway.
"…speaking of throat wounds, I might have to say someone else has come back from coma."
Athena's heart skipped a beat, "Hephaestus…?"
"Oh, no…" Asceplius averted his gaze in shame to have disappointed his Queen, "Uhm… I should say Hephaestus is doing well, that is, unconsciously. His body is not used to healing from grave wounds, explains the slow process. It's given that he does not go into battles unlike some of you whose bodies had adapted with hostility. I was referring to Poseidon."
As if air had been vacuumed from her lungs, Athena swallowed. How could she have forgotten… the anarchist survived, and she knew she was perhaps the only one gladdened by this fact.
"Thank you," she nodded faintly, "I will see my Uncle in a while…"
Asceplius acknowledged and as he went on his way did the Queen reenter Ares' confinement. An oil lamp by the bed illuminated the room in exchange of the departed sunlight. She found him peeking through the folds of his pectoral bandages.
Pulling a chair for herself, the Queen quietly sat beside his bed. She was overflowing with so many things she wanted to ask… how he was feeling… if he was hurting somewhere… if he remembers anything before waking up. It had been days. She had been silently slipping a few tears in seclusion. This room was her first temple in the morning, her last at moon's appearance –
"How long have I been out?"
She raised her head at the rich but tired voice, "Uh… five…" Five days and nineteen hours to be exact. Her tongue felt thick.
Ares sighed, sinking into the pillows, "How bad was it?"
"Clean through your chest…"
"What was?"
"An iron rod…" she watched her fingers resting above her lap, weaved through each other and moist.
"How is everyone?"
"Alive…"
Now how will she say it included Poseidon? Athena wet her lips, "Even… Uncle..."
"Hm," Ares ran a hand across his mussed hair, "Should be. Or else he'd proved himself a tiny cock had he died."
Furrowing her brows, Athena gaped her mouth in surprise. "Wait, so you… did not…"
"Bastard wouldn't shut up," Ares stifled a yawn, "barely hit the jugular so he could give my damned ears some rest."
She stared at him; had she underestimated this war god all along, or was he truly evolving with a heart? The Ares she knew for millennia, that barbaric sleaze, would not have forgiven the life out of the likes of Poseidon – and she would have understood it had he slaughtered their Uncle. But he did not, and it was so unbecoming of him.
"And you?"
Athena's skin pricked. "What…?"
"How are you?"
"Uh," gods. "I am well." She batted her lashes trying to recall, "Spent a night in the other room. Malaise. Minor sewing… I'm fully recovered, of course, by now."
This time it was Ares who gave her an inscrutable gaze, like he wanted to say something but was hesitant to, marked by the tensing of his jaw. She could perceive a buildup of awkwardness but it was clear that she owed him more than words she could offer.
"Thank you," her lips had finally moved, bleak as requiem, "…thank you for… saving me. I could not… I mean, I don't know how to make of it, but know that I owe you my life."
The air had suddenly grown thick between them.
"It should be me… lying there…" she heard her own voice break, "In those bandages. I know it should have been me."
Ares rolled his tongue across the wall of his mouth. He was a goner in these kinds of conversations. They said it felt like butterflies in the stomach but to him it were maggots gnawing him alive. He leaned in and reached his fingers on the soft lamp flame, "I have a question…"
Athena waited.
"Don't you ever comb?"
She creased a brow. When Ares sniggered did she heave a sighing laughter, patting her nest of thick hair.
"It's that bad?" Athena asked. Of course it was. Her day was piled with straightening issues of human leaders before it cascades down to murderous plots or mobs and massacres. She had the unruliest mane in all the cosmos.
"But really – what were you thinking?"
She settled to silence.
"I know you to be a warrior, Athena. But not an idiot."
What? A stunning heat licked her gut. She remembered hanging at the edge and Dionysus screaming out her name as her fingers loosened its grip, all so she could save them.
"Wait… that was idiotic?"
"Ridiculous. Dumb. Stupid. I could go about all day."
She scoffed, "Why, because unlike you I don't think primarily about myself?"
"Great," Ares clicked his tongue, "I save you twice and become the one 'who primarily thinks about myself'. What if I failed you, hm? What if I wasn't there in the first place?"
"I did thank you, didn't I?"
"I don't need it – "
"Because you're too fed up playing hero?"
"Because you fucking scared me!"
Even Ares was shocked at his own words, suddenly biting down his tongue and feeling sweat gather in his temples. The Queen opened her mouth but shut it as quick. There was heat she could not subside from her cheeks. "I… I'm sorry..."
"I don't want to fight," Ares gritted his teeth looking away, "I just wanted to say you have to think it over before launching to risks… we can't always count on luck."
"I know," the Queen nodded, "I know that now."
The heat on her cheeks began to creep beneath the rims of her eyes. Soon she could not blink away the tears slowly filling them. "I'm sorry if I scared you. I'm sorry I didn't think well…" she sniffled, "I never – it was the first time someone leapt to death for me. I was never used to being saved… It was only my life or theirs."
Ares continued playing his fingers in the dancing flame, evading her eyes as much as possible. "Well I guess that has to change now… you may be able to save everyone but not everyone is battle-born as you are. As we are."
Faintly smiling, she nodded and embraced herself.
"Besides… dying in Poseidon's rebellion is not how I planned us to go. Don't want that be told over the centuries."
She pressed her hands on lips to cover a smile, "Harsh."
"It's degrading… my city states would forget me. They'd tear down my edifices in a second."
Shaking her head with a soft laughter, Athena reached out to the blanket and pulled it to his chest. Ares watched her carefully. The mellow taps of her palms was making his chest heave.
"Rest up, Ares," she said, smoothing the blanket. She felt his breath hitch and next thing she knew, she was holding his hand on both hers. Burnt. Scarred. So warm, these of a warrior King. Its rough defected surface could make anyone's skin crawl. Gripping that trident had marred him for life, melting the lines on his palm. It wasn't anything pleasant to the touch, but to Athena it was a token of honor… a reminder how ruthless he'd fought for their home. And nothing was as attractive.
"You fought well; it was the best I've seen of you," Athena met his eyes. The shade of red was bleak and serene. She shrugged, putting his hand down, "… still heathenish, in my unpopular opinion – but spirited."
She wasn't sure of the look he gave her, something that wanted to believe but hardly.
"You never said anything good of me in a battle," he mocked, "Why now?"
Why?
It was a torturous question… but the answer easily flowed out.
"Some things are meant to be said…" Athena hummed. She ran her fingers on the scar below his eye, "Words of heart have a long term power. A century from now you'd be looking back to what you are… or aren't. In the midst of joy you'd thank the courage you had to speak. In frustration you'd only regret looking at an empty space and imagining how everything could have changed had you only spoken your mind."
An inward titter made her quickly retract her hand from his face. She stood and willed to leave before losing total control of her senses. She'd only hoped he had not noticed her trip lightly on her dress.
"I… should go."
Ares half smiled. You should. He could not trust himself at this state. At this privacy and too close of their faces.
The Queen turned to the exit, glancing back only to be filled with shame, and made her fleeting motions to the open.
A floor below was Poseidon's room, a much darker, denser space by the time Athena had reach its door. The room was draped in dingy shadows. She found her Uncle propped to a sitting position. He had less bandages than Ares but thick around his neck.
She stood at the foot of his bed, watching the contours in his unshaven face.
"The Queen to come visit me. A blooming thing you are. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Poseidon held his neck as he spoke, his voice being husky. She could notice the small flinches his eyes twitch to.
"There is nothing pleasurable about visiting you,"
He scoffed. Reposing his head and downing a few gulps of water, he sighed, "I remember being in these array once… when the infirmary was yet part of the citadel. Way back Zeus' rebellion. Lost an entire arm." He snorted, "Took almost half a year to 'paste' it back. I couldn't even remember if it was my arm at all… ah those days. Amphitrite would be standing where you are. Slipping past guards… slipping between my legs… I could not have imagined a throat so warm to fu – "
"I sent her home to Oceanus," the Queen cleared her throat, unable to stomach visualizing whatever Poseidon was blabbing about. She pretended not to see the grin that split across his face.
She went on, "It was what she wanted in the first place. I offered a place for her here but she would not take it." Athena walked slowly towards the side of his bed, not taking her eyes of him, "And she's taken the trident with her, said it belonged to the Ocean, and to the Ocean it shall be bound again. No one commands the sea now, as much as the skies have been returned to Uranus after Zeus' death."
"Aw, pity…" the god frowned, "Would just have to spend my immortality on Dionesian revelry and enjoy the company of questionable women."
"Rest up," Athena stirred her quest to leave, "Rather than attend to your carnal instincts, Poseidon, it is imperative you begin a plan to make up for your damages. Or else you'd no sooner enjoy the company of glaring eyes upon you."
"Did you enjoy it?"
Athena turned back in prompt of curiosity.
The shrill effortful laughter he belched made her skin cold. "Your pre wedding night?"
She felt a lump form on her throat. Poseidon's gleeful smirk from scarred jaws had given away how terror was beginning to choke her features.
"You know nothing of it," Athena quickly blurted before losing grip and reached towards the exit.
"Nothing? Oh darling, we know everything…"
The Queen urged herself to run, but like a game clamped between iron buckle her feet remained where it stood. Her breaths were beginning to race, chest tightening...
"You think it's a secret only your most trusted friends know?" Poseidon's words dripped viscously – "Olympus and every creature of divinity in Gaia knows – he… raped… you… and we know everything."
"Good night, Poseidon," she turned her back feeling ice form under her feet.
"How he… tore your dress and bruised your wrists as they were pinned down like a helpless little mouse?" Poseidon muttered torturously, "How he looked into your terrified eyes… your body quivered… your neck discolored from his fingers… how he flipped you face down the sheets and that your screams for your daddy's help muffled towards nothing? How you… writhed… and snarled… and cried as he – fucked… and ruined your luscious innocence... until you bled… uh, how did he describe it again? Ah yes, said you bled so… so sweetly… and that his cock felt like a sword blessed with the holiest waters. Hail Athena, Queen of the gods, a laughingstock of virgins and comedy behind faux adoration."
Athena was sure her lips were as white as the rest of her skin, shivering despite humidity. It had been a lifetime since that hideous night, buried beneath better memories and lightened scars but now she could feel the pores of her flesh widen as the nightmare arise from chasm.
Scenes struck her like lightning – the gut wrenching pain, her own screams, teethmarks, white knuckles around thighs and ankles…
"Is it hard to imagine? That vermin you so defended… etching wild details over laughter and wine and an eager audience… on the same night you were wed?" he snorted, words riled up over the other uncontrollably, "The hypocrite you are, Athena. Denying justice for my son to patronize another who was as equally animalistic… only because he's King."
The only sound that resonated came from snaps of coal from the hearth.
"Such long silence, Queen. Would it be you now wish I had succeeded – "
"I but now wish he had dipped the shard deeper into that throat," the Queen hissed amid obvious defeat. The streak of tears on her paled sunken cheeks glimmered in dim light. "Until your shoulders got cleaned off that cursed head."
With a quick spin she was striding past the hallways, her mind swinging in an uncontrollable pendulum.