Labors of Love

"Fulfill all of the labors I will assign to you two, and I'll determine your worth. If your work is satisfactory, then perhaps I might consider returning these men to you."

Sayo saw this one coming from a mile away….these labors will be their ticket to their journey beyond this realm…..unfortunately, it looks like Rexis will be out this time around for that Underworld-ly quest later on.

"I shall see to it that you are worthy of my son. I'll have you and your wretched companion fulfill different arduous tasks for you to prove yourselves. Should you fail, then my cruel judgment shall befall upon you."

'Did she just described me as 'wretched'? Huh, the audacity of this woman!' Sayo wanted to recoil from the insult but she knew better than to provoke more the Goddess of Love and Beauty.

Psyche listened intently to the words of the wickedly perfect goddess whose wonder and beauty captivated her. Talking back was something she would have done, if only she's not at the shorter end of the stick, so she decided not to, and just let the goddess continue on her monologue.

"First thing's first! Sort through all these grains! By nightfall, I want all of them to be neatly piled and sorted! Make sure you finish all of these or else….you can just try to guess what will happen." From nowhere, bags upon bags of various grains filled the entire living room, and each of them were unsorted grains of varied kinds that was too small and too plenty to be properly segregated given their time limit.

Again, the goddess flashed them her perfectly line white teeth. "You may now begin. I'll be back by nightfall."

Aphrodite waltzed out of the House of Eros, towards her parked dove-drawn chariot, and left Psyche and Sayo alone to their tasks. Immeditely, Psyche rushed over to the nearest bag of grains, and dropped their contents on the floor to begin her sorting.

She neatly lined the grains according to their kind, and a smiling Sayo approached her with a knowing look on her face, with not an ounce of doubt that they'll be able to easily breeze through this task.

"I – I thought you were supposed to h-help me…" Psyche sadly said to her.

"I need not to." Her response made Psyche look up with a rather disappointed and confused look on her face. So Sayo tried to rephrase her answer.

"I mean, pretty girls like you always have it the easier way around when it comes to some things." It's true though, that's her honest thought about this myth. Psyche got help because she was pretty. Just like how many modern girls almost always easily have things according to their way because of their pretty looks. That reality bites, from the ancient, all the way to the modern times.

"What do you mean?" Psyche inquired.

"Nah…just wait a mo…they'll come." Sayo didn't really try to help Psyche do her sorting, which made the latter much more worried about finishing this task given to them by her 'stepmother'. Perhaps this is the precedent for all 'evil stepmother' tropes out there. But soon enough, ants began to crawl their way to the pile of grains that Psyche scattered throughout the floor.

As more minutes passed by, more and more of these ants arrived, until thousands upon thousands of them began sorting through the grains that Psyche began to pile earlier.

There were little tears in the corners of Psyche's eyes as she told the ants, "Thank you, thank you!" Just before the sun began to peep behind the clouds, all of the grains were sorted, no sweat to the two ladies.

By nightfall, Aphrodite came back, and her good mood from thinking that she surely gave them something so hopeless to accomplish was ruined upon seeing the neatly sorted rows of the grains from all the bags she dumped into their working area. 'Was it too little?' How? How could this be?!'

"Your work is by no means over. Tomorrow, I'll give you another one. But for now, let me show you my mercy."

Her mercy was no better than just a crust of burnt bread for each of them. She also locked them in the room and made all of the other furnitures disappear, leaving them with nothing but the hard, cold, marble floor. She bade them to sleep on that floor, while she herself went off to her lovely, fragrant couch.

'Surely, if I can keep them, especially that hussy called Psyche, at hard labor and half-starve her, that hateful beauty of hers will soon be lost too. Until then, I must make sure that my son and the other mortal remains under my spell.' Despite the L she took today, Aphrodite was pleased at the way the matters are shaping.

The next morning she devised another plan for Psyche and Sayo, who looks disinterested now, fully knowing already wtf is coming next. "Down near the riverbank," Aphrodite began, "where the bushes grow thick, are sheep with fleeces of gold. Go fetch me some of their shining, golden wool."

The goddess sent them out in search for the riverbank, and after a few minutes, Psyche and Sayo spotted it. When the worn out Psyche reached the stream, saw the dangerous-looking beasts, a great longing seized upon her to throw herself into it and end all her despair.

"Stop that, that's pointless." Sayo was in no mood for her drama, and her patience is already wearing thin from waiting for the reed that was said to help them, so she decided to take matters upon her own hands. "We just have to wait for the early evening when these beasts will rest for the day."

The sheep were indeed very fierce, but if they'll be just patient and wait for them to come out of the bushes to rest beside the river, they could go into the thicket and find plenty of golden wool hanging on the sharp briars. Upon doing exactly this, the two of them were able to retrieve a quantity of the shining, golden fleece.

Aphrodite was shookt as she received the wool with an evil smile. "Someone helped you." She said sharply. "Never did you do this alone by yourselves. However, I will give you the opportunity to prove that you really have a stout heart and the singular prudence you make such a show of." She finished with a tone of utter disgust. The same thing from the previous night happened. They were given a pitiful crust of bread, and were made to sleep on the solid floor.

By morning, that perfect smile of the Goddess was the first bad thing they saw apart from each other, and once again, Sayo rolled her eyes at the next task that was about to be given to them.

Aphrodite showed to them a Vision from her channel. "Do you see that black water which falls from the hills yonder? It is the source of the terrible river which is hateful, the river Styx. Each of you are to fill this flask from it." She then gave them one flask each, for them to fill in later.

'This is the worst.' Psyche thought. 'Only a winged creature can reach it, and so steep and slimy were the rocks on all sides, and so fearful is the onrush of the descending waters.' She looked at her companion, who doesn't seem to be worried at all about this very difficult ordeal.

Sayo just winked at her, confident that help will arrive for this 'pretty girl'. Although Sayo really didn't want to discount the troubles that Psyche encountered in the myth, she can't help but feel that such treatment is unfair. Not everyone who struggles are given these unusual aid. This holds true in the present.

So she just tried to cover these thoughts with another nasty thought. 'Well, if everybody says life is unfair, life is, therefore, fair!'

When they reached the waterfall, their savior was an eagle, which poised on its great wings beside them, and seized their flasks with its beak and brought it back to them full of the Stygian waters.

Aphrodite was outraged when they came back unscathed from that seemingly impossible task. 'WHAT?! WHY?! HOW?!' But she kept on, for the only effect of all that accomplishments by Psyche and the other mortal was to make her try again. The next day, she gave Psyche a box which she was to carry to the Underworld and ask Persephone to fill with some of her beauty cream. "Tell her that I need it, as soon as possible! You cause me so much stress, my lines are showing!" She exaggerated this by putting her hands on her forehead.

"But how, how do we get in there?" Psyche's lips trembled as she asked this question.

"Die of course!" The goddess feigned sympathy at the two of them.

Psyche was scared. She didn't sign up for this. Dying isn't an option. 'There has to be another way.'

"Fine, let's hurry and finish it." Sayo interrupted her thoughts as she said this out loud to the Goddess. "Make sure you keep your promise, God-dess." She pouted before she turned her back at Aphrodite, who looked aghast by her boldness.

Sayo's thoughts were only filled with one thing – the Prophecy they got from Delphi. Now's about the time when she's got to see through it and figure things out once she reaches that place. 'I need goddamn answers, not a beauty cream!'