The smell of hay and farm animals surrounded us as we appeared in the middle of a field. A cow mooed, staring at us over the brown wooden fence. Astraea let go of my hand as I stared around.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“In the mortal world. Kentucky to be exact.”
She limped over to a fallen log and sat down on it. There was a cut on her leg as blood rushed from it. I’d almost forgotten that she’s been hurt during her battle with Lilith. Most of her injuries had healed except for the cut on her leg.
“Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine.” She smiled. “It’s just taken a bit longer since I used too much power. I should have waited until I was fully healed before cloaking us and teleporting. I just couldn’t let them take you.”
I sat down on the log beside her as she picked at her cut. I smiled. The act reminded me of one I’d seen mortal children do many times.
“Are you okay?” She asked. “You know with leaving your friend and your mother there.”
“They will be fine. My father won’t hurt them.”
It was the truth. While my father might search their memories for any hint of dishonesty or betrayal, if he finds nothing, he will not hurt them. His anger was with me now. I couldn’t get over the look of disgust on his face as he stared at me.
“He doesn’t hate you.” Astraea said guessing my thoughts.
“You saw his face. He’s disgusted by me.”
“No, he’s disgusted by what lurks in your blood. Your father still loves you. He even stood up for you against my father.”
I chuckled. “That wasn’t for my benefit. My father loves to go against Zeus. If he would have said it was nice sunny day, my father would have countered with that it was muggy rainy one.”
“I don’t think so. You should have more faith in your father Aristaeus.”
“How’s your wound?” I asked changing the subject. I didn’t want to spend the time thinking about my father right now.
Astraea stretched out her legs as she wiped the smeared blood off her leg. The cut in her leg was completely healed as if it was never there. I reached out to touch the place where I remember seeing the scar. My fingers brushed against the softness of her skin the silver of my nails shining against her leg. Realizing I was caressing her leg, I moved my hand and stared up at Astraea. She stared back at me with an inscrutable look, her eyes moving from gold to blue.
Clearing my throat I said, “Why did you come this time? I didn’t call for you.”
“I was watching already. I knew I wasn’t supposed to enter Pearu without the authority of my father, but when I saw her hitting on you. I just couldn’t stand it.”
There was silence between us as unspoken feelings bounced around on the surface. She’d defied her father rules again because of me. Because she could not sit idly by and watch Eris kill me. It was the same way I felt when I saw her lying unconscious on the ground.
“I thought you were in trouble for your last act of disobedience.”
“I was. But my father’s servants have a soft spot for me. They knew I wasn’t allowed to leave our world anymore, so they didn’t feel guilty allowing me to glance in at your world. I’m sure when I do return they will not trust me anymore.”
“What is your world like?” I asked. “I know you can’t say too much about it. I just want to know is similar to that of our world and the mortal world. Do you have different parts to your lands like we do?”
Astraea thought about whether or not if she wanted to answer that question or not. “Yes our world is similar more so of that of the mortal world. We have several cities in our land.”
“I thought you guys would only have one place where all your people would live.”
Astraea laughed. “We might be Gods, but we are still children of our true Creator. He gives us a chance to enjoy our lives as well. Many mortals like to think we sit around and just stare down into the world all day without moving which is only halfway true. We take shifts with the other species in our world.”
“What other species do you guys have?”
“Now that I can’t answer.”
I nodded. “I understand. Do you enjoy it there?”
“Yeah, I love my world. Why do you ask?”
I shrugged. “It just seems like you’re always trying to escape it.”
“I’m not trying to escape my world. The only times I’ve left was when you needed me. Our world is so peaceful. I wouldn’t trade it for that of the mortal world like others would. I love being close to my kind and close to the Creator.”
“Have you seen him? Your Creator?”
Astraea stared at me. “He’s just not our Creator, Aristaeus. He’s yours too. And to answer your question, no I haven’t seen him.”
I scoffed. “What is it with Gods and not revealing themselves? I understand why you don’t show yourselves to mortals, they wouldn’t be able to handle it. But to the creatures of Pearu, we don’t care how you look. It’s better for us actually to know how you look so we can know our enemy.”
“Am I your enemy Aristaeus?”
“No, I wasn’t saying that. I was just speaking in terms of the creatures of Pearu.”
“Hmm.” Astraea mused. “Well you seemed to answer the question for yourself. We do not reveal ourselves because mortals would not be able to handle our true form. It’s the same reason those of the damned do not show their true forms to the mortals.”
“It’s not like we don’t want to. It just goes against the rules of your father.”
A hawk settled on a chopped true stump and stared over at us. Its head turned to the side as trying to figure out what exactly where we. The way it turned its head reminded me of Lilith.
“Lilith seemed shocked by my change. It was like she wasn’t expecting it which was confusing since she was the one who seemed to think I was something different.”
“I noticed. Your change shocked a lot of people.”
I turned to stare at Astraea. “Everyone that is, except you. You seemed okay by change.”
Astraea stared at her hands but didn’t bother to answer me.
“Astraea, you know what am I am, don’t you?”
She looked up at me as if she was sad. “Can we talk about something else please?”
“No. Now answer me. Do you know what I am?”
“Yes.”
“What am I?”
“I can’t tell you that Aristaeus.” She said.
“You won’t, or you can’t.”
“I won’t.”
I sighed and rubbed a hand through my hair. I’d yet look at the new me. From what I could tell, I still the same, but there was still something different in me. Everyone else seemed to see it. Everyone seemed to know what I was, except me.
“Please don’t be angry with me Aristaeus.” Astraea said softly. “I want to tell you but I can’t.”
“Why? Is it against one of your rules?”
“No it’s not one of our rules. I’m just worried about how you will view yourself. I’m worried about what you will do and how this change will affect you.”
“What do you mean?”
“This change is something that has never happened ever in our existence though it has been spoken of.”
“So you’re saying I’m a myth?”
Astraea nodded. “Yes and since I don’t have all the information yet, I don’t feel comfortable telling you. You’re going to want answers to questions I don’t have.”
I stared at her. I knew she was just looking out for me. She was right as well. Whatever I am, I was going to ask questions about how I’d gotten this. Whatever kind of mythical creature I was seemed to bring fear to both the Lilith and the Gods. I slightly wondered if this Grethen knew this when he brought me to my father that night.
“Who is Grethen?” Astraea asked reading my thoughts.
“He was a member of
my father’s Courant. He was the one who brought me to my mother when she couldn’t have off springs of her own.”
“Where did he get you from?”
The vision I’d seen in the heart came to me as I blinked my eyes closed.
“It’s okay Aristaeus. You don’t have to tell me if you’re not ready.”
I rubbed my hands across my face. I brought my hands down and stared at the moonstone ring on my finger. “It’s not that. I want to tell you. I just don’t have all the parts to the puzzle yet. I’m still confused on what I saw myself.”
Astraea reached over and rubbed my shoulder in comfort. “Do not stress yourself over this. Together we’ll find out what happened to you, and what all of this mean. It can’t be just a coincidence, your birth that is.”
I nodded. It was something that ran through my mind as well. My birth and the vision of Kithara wasn’t an accident. There was something else missing. I was here for a purpose, whatever that seemed to be.
“I wonder where Lilith disappeared to.”
“She’s probably gone into hiding. She wasn’t expecting Zeus to appear in our world. I don’t think anyone was prepared for that surprise.”
Astraea sighed. “My father came because of me. He’s connected to all of his children. So when one of us is down, he automatically feels it. Once my shield was down he knew exactly where I was. It only took him a second for him to get here.”
“What do you think he will do to you this time?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve disobeyed him too many times. It was one thing to do it in front of Lilith, but in front of creatures of Pearu. He won’t let this go so easily like he’s done all the other times.”
“I’ll defend you.” I said fiercely but Astraea simply waved her hand.
“Will you go back home?”
“Not right now. I need to let my father calm down some. Besides he needs to spend more time with Kiowa. She’s going to need him when she wakes up. She’s never experienced anything of that sort before.”
“She seems really sweet to be a demon.” Astraea said smiling. “I’ve seen her often around you. She reminds me so much of some of the mortal mothers I’ve seen.”
“Don’t let her hear that, she’ll have your head.”
We both laughed as the cows behind the fence begin to push closer. They seemed to find us intriguing to the point they were trying to break the fence.
“I heard what she said.”
“Hmm” I turned to Astraea. “You heard what who said?”
“Your mother. I heard what she said about being okay with you having feelings for me.” I stared at her as she ducked her head in embarrassment. “I know I shouldn’t have invaded your privacy, I’m sorry. I was just watching you when she said that.”
“No…It’s okay. You don’t have to be sorry.”
“Aristaeus.” Astraea called softly.
I glanced over at her. She moved around nervously like a mortal. Whatever she was about to say both frightened and excited her.
“Yes.”
“I…I like you Aristaeus.” She lifted her head to stare at me as her eyes shined bright with each change of color. “I…I really like you.”
As I stared at her, the thought came to me that we were trouble. This couldn’t happen. A God and a Hell Demon with feelings for each other. Things like this just didn’t happen. It was unheard of and it was blasphemy. Even as I thought all of this, I couldn’t stop my head nearing towards hers. I watched her eyes move from my eyes to my lips as she leaned closer. Our lips touched and we both sighed with contentment. Yup, we were in deep trouble.
My hand grabbed the back of her head as I pulled her closer to me. Her hand reached up to grip my shirt as we pushed to get closer to each other. Our lips continued to entwine as I tried to install this scene in every part of my memory I could. I didn’t want to forget this moment. My chest felt as if it was about to burst and my hands wouldn’t stop moving from her head to her face. She was beautiful. This kiss was beautiful. For once I experience the love that mortals dreamed of. Her lips were soft against mine as we they took the time to get to know mine better. I didn’t want this to end.
The clearing of someone’s voice forced us apart. I leaped up and withdrew my demos blocking Astraea from the intruder’s view. I was expecting to see Lilith again, but instead, Zeus stood in front of us.
Embarrassment from being caught kissing his daughter went through me until I remembered he and the rest of the Gods wanted me dead.
“Father” Astraea called from behind me.
Zeus stared at us his eyes narrowing at the both of us. He was alone.
“Astraea you are to return home at once.”
“Father please let me explain. You do not understand.”
“I understand enough!” His voice came out sharply. Thunder boomed in the sky as Astraea whimpered. “You continue to disobey me over and over and I have gone easy on you because I thought you were just humoring yourself.”
“I’m sorry father.”
“I do not want to hear any of your apologies. You will find someone waiting for you when you return home. You will not be leaving again. I will make sure of it this time.”
I turned to look back at Astraea whose head was bent as tears ran down her face. It was killing her to go against her father and it was enough to feel me with guilt. She was doing this for me.
“Go.” I said quietly to her. “I will be okay.”
Astraea’s head lifted as she stared at me. She shook her head fiercely. “No I won’t. I won’t let anyone harm you!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Zeus remove a golden rope similar to that of my jugest. I heard Astraea gasped behind me. The rope shot out of Zeus hand towards Astraea. The rope wrapped around her leg as she was yanked forward by Zeus.
“No!” I screamed.
I ran at Zeus who threw a bolt at me. The impact from the bolt sent me flying in the air as I landed in a pile of logs. I peered up as Astraea had now reached Zeus feet. Lightning flashed in the sky as it cleared and two forms of light shot out.
The light landed next to Zeus feet to reveal to beings I’ve never seen before. They were dressed in white armor and there face was covered by a white and gold helmet. Bright white wings were attached to their back and seemed to stretch wider than any wings I’d seen before. They ran forward and latched onto Astraea’s arms. With a wail, gold light formed around them as they shot towards the sky leaving me alone with Zeus.
“No!” I got up from the ground. I ran at Zeus. I threw my fists at him as he blocked them without really laying a hand on me. “What did you do to her?”
“She disobeyed me. I will not tolerate disobedience from anyone.”
I didn’t bother to respond as I threw punches at me. Zeus got tired of my hits as he swatted me to the side. I crashed into the fence that held the cows. The cows didn’t seem to mind my intruding as they began to lick and chew on my hair.
“Do not worry yourself Aristaeus. I will not harm her, at least not in the way your father does to you.” Zeus sat down on the log Astraea and I had been sharing. “I know you have feelings for my daughter and she has feelings for you as well.”
I pushed up from the ground and slapped a cow that was still chewing on my hair. I made my way towards Zeus ready to take him on again though I doubt I will win, even with my new strength.
“You’re not their blood son.”
“I thought you already knew I wasn’t there son.”
“Believe it or not Aristaeus, your father does know how to keep some secrets from me. I thought of you to be a full blooded Hell Demon.”
“And now?” I asked.
“And now you’re something that is not supposed to exist. It seems my daughter discovered it before me, but yet she has been an observing one.”
“And yet you sent her away without letting her explain.”
?
??I had to. I couldn’t have her associating with an abomination. A Sacrilege at that.” Zeus said.
I stared at him. “What did you call me? I wouldn’t have thought a high God of your level would resort to name calling. I thought only Poseidon does that?”
“I am not calling you that to pick on you. I’m calling you that, because it’s what you are. You’re a Sacrilege Aristaeus.”
“Sacrilege? What does that mean?
“You’re no longer just a Hell Demon, you’re a God.”