16 Chapter 12 ~ Arrival of the Dawn in the Darkness
Hades
There I was, chewing on my butter bread, it was sweet, the bread was soft,…I was also describing shit to focus on something other than someone's glare.
"…hades," a soft voice pressed from across the table that all five of us sat to eat in the diner room, we were as usual these days in the past year, enjoying a meal in the afternoon.
"Yes my beloved sister, what is it that you require of that you call upon me," still not meeting her gaze, I also heard a sadistic chuckle next to the person sitting on a chair besides mine, Poseidon's.
I also noted that perhaps I should add some more decorations to the dinner room, I am running out of things to gaze on.
"Hades…perhaps you can explain to me something, what I was under the belief we already agreed on," I was under a distinct impression that her left brow was twitching every so often, holding herself together from exploding.
"What is it? O honorable eldest sister, we agreed on many things in the past decades," I felt something running down the side of my head, surely that wasn't sweat.
Finally, I brought up the courage to look at her expression,…and immediately regretted it.
She was smiling, but you could tell it was a artificial to the real one she usually had, it was actually kind of off putting that she could pull this off.
'no NO! I refuse to go down the path of a typical anime Japanese boy wuss! I WILL NOT succumb to cowardice by mere looks alone!'
I returned the gaze with one equally unfazed, even slightly bored looking to counter the attack imposed by my opponent at the dinner table, as I devoured a chicken leg.
Still smiling, hestia had a twinkle in her eye as she answered with a deceptively gentle tone, "we agreed that you wouldn't leave your brother Posiedon covered in more bruises than skin in an attempt to have him naturally defend himself by water transformation,".
…hm, I do seem to recall that, though to be fair, I kept gas lighting him to go beyond his limits and try to achieve his objectives.
To be fair, I wasn't actually using a whip, I was using a dulled stone sword…though I doubt hestia would honestly care in any capacity.
Somehow the stare grew stronger against me, as if she heard my thoughts on the matter on hand, it was as if she redoubled her move.
'NO! Goddammit! I am a man- nay a GOD! I shall not fall! I will STAND, figuratively of course, I'm at the dinner table,'
Looking for a distraction I looked to the others on the table, Posiedon was there smirking viciously, the sadistic bastard, he could've avoided this by literally taking a bath.
Demeter was trying to hide her expression with an indifferent one she had placed over as she ate her oats, though I could tell she felt the same way Posiedon had.
Hera, seemed a bit distracted, she on the other hand was focused on whatever was in her hands and not what was going on on the table or the food.
It was actually kinda deep of a deep one, seeing the look in her eyes and the minuscule amount of sweat coming out of her.
…she really is taking it to heart huh?
Flashback:
Currently, me and Hera were sitting in a semi-greenhouse room, Demeter was growing, that mostly had flowers, Hera was gazing at them and was constantly getting a feel for them with her hands at the plants.
I sat cross legged on the grass floor, it wasn't like a modern greenhouse, it fact it might honestly just be easier and more accurate to say that the relatively big room that was under the house was a small cut out portion of a forest.
A hit strange considering that the underworld is proving to be notoriously hard to grow anything here, Demeter had to make sure it was growing every day in hopes it wouldn't just fall over wilted dead.
But that isn't why I was here
I let it out of the gateway that was my mouth, "stop limiting yourself," he said, prepared to take on the beast that was an angered egotistical girl.
As expected, she glared at me, a frown that threatened to turn her face ugly with it.
"Excuse me?"
"Stop limiting yourself, your boxing yourself in, not able to imagine what you could do with your power as a goddess," I replied with a neutral tone.
She rolled her eyes, as she looked down at the growing violet flowers that were in front of her.
"If you have remained ignorant after all these years brother, then let me explain, I am a goddess of marriage, women, marital harmony, and the protector of women during childbirth…do any of those actually give you an impression that I will be useful for combat…in any compacity?"
Her hands stopped as she clenched them, "I don't have anything, nothing to attack, to defend, nor to support with, I am fated to stay at the sidelines and cheer on…or even become the damsel in distress that will inevitably have one of you be breaking your backs trying to save,".
Her eyes were glazed, she didn't sound depressed, or sad even, just…accepting, as if that was naturally going to be her permanent role in this endeavor of a life.
"…which is why I said stop limiting yourself, you have boxed yourself in with these ideas that you need a more direct domain to be of any use, that you can't hope to achieve a useful result, let alone an ace in a hole,".
Her closed her eyes, probably to hide her frustration, a moment later she turned to me, looking in with barely concealed annoyance, "then enlighten me," was all she said.
I sat for a moment in the grass, before laying down fully, one foot over the other, hands behind my hand, and closed my eyes.
"…what is martial harmony?"
I couldn't see it, but I could imagine her confused blinking, I continued before she could answer, "just what does it mean to be "protector of women during childbirth" other than the obvious of course,".
I opened my eyes, "what is marriage?"
I rose back up to a sitting position with a serious look in my eyes and expression, "what does it mean, to be the living goddess of "women"? The opitome of what you and many others call a woman?".
I paused for a minute, Hera was clearly thinking about it based on her blank expression, I stared at her for that time before continuing, where I knew she was listening, "you, no not just you, all of us are stuck in this idea that what is obvious will remain so, and requires no more thought of it, in your mind, let's say Women, being a goddess of women, in your mind that means you are the prettiest…and that's it,".
Another memory emerged from me recently, no it was more accurate to say a whole collection of memories that didn't all seem important came to me,
I remember video games, I remember my high school years and yet none of my elementary,…but one of the memories I did remember, helped me here to try and help Hera.
The Greeks considered anything to be physically beautiful to have a beautiful mind, not as in they are incredibly intelligent, though that might be a part of it.
It most likely meant morally righteousness, generosity, kindness, courage, and so much more, it might've also meant subservient to her husband considering the Greeks being an Ancient civilization that treated women more like something to trade or be won over.
Obviously, this was idiotic way of thinking, both the last bit and the fact that the beauty of the outer equaled the beauty of the personality.
Don't get him wrong, both were important, anyone who said that as long as the personality was good they would be with that person in marriage is a liar.
It's the priority, but not the be all and end all, love at first sight is just as bullshit, there are steps, going from physical attraction to compatibility, from personality discernment to how possible the relationship is.
Life is complicated, love even more so, not that the Greek gods and humans seem to even begin to understand just what a proper romance is considering what kind of person Aphrodite is.
I told this to Hera as simply as I could, don't want another Demeter incident, "for now, try to in some way manipulate the sense of the person as that is how beauty is portrayed for others, as beauty is easily the biggest connection a woman would have, don't think within expectation, be flexible, make use of everything you can imagine,".
I smiled as I could see that Hera actually looked…excited at her hands, probably in wonder at possibilities that she didn't consider.
Another thing though, we weren't finished, "now let's move on, on exactly what you can do with marriage-"
There was a knock at our front door.
(imagine the footsteps as knocks)
All of us froze, instinctually utilizing Athenian Mind from the sudden rush of adrenaline that now existed, my mind sped up in incredible degrees.
I was not ashamed to admit that the knocking has heavily spooked me, my siblings also shared the feeling also helped.
Slowly, I looked to each of my brethren, and nodded as I slowly walked to the room at the main door created a simple iron sword and applied an amount of energy to Destruction, enough so that my Herculean Might would activate, and give me a noticeable increasement to my durability and strength.
As I stepped close to the door, I looked back at my siblings, hestia was stayingway in the back, looking concerned, Demeter had both of her hands on the wooden wall while looking at the door, Hera shakely brought her hands up, light forming around her palms, while Poisedon had several water whips forming around him.
…we had no fucking clue who was behind that door, it may be a potential friend or an enemy, it could be one of the many gods that used the underworld as shelter to hide from the Titans.
The problem…was that the possibility of the titans arriving is not zero, or in fact in any way low.
Softly placing a hand on the door handle, I took a deep breath and gripped it.
If all else fails, the others escape through the back entry, while I'll hold them off via delaying tactics I thought of.
I opened the door wide open, ready for a fight, ...only to be left befuddlement on what he saw, the first thing to register was not the giant woman in front of him funnily enough, but the two behind her, a female, smaller, wavy brown hair, a nymph he realized…and the second person was a baby that the nymph was holding.
All of the sudden…I was hugged…strongly too, I could feel tears from silent sobbing going down my back…i stood there completely still…completely caught off guard before the woman reached out and grabbed the rest of my siblings.
By the looks on their faces...their wide dilated eyes, they were also feeling shocked, but we simply stood there, until we hugged back.
Rhea found us, after only a year of our escape into the underworld.
