Their Goddess

by Charlie Hart

  "You're wrong."

  "They will get jealous of one another. It's in their nature. This will never work."

  "What do you know about love?" I ask coolly.

  "I know that I love Persephone like a sister," she says, anger in her eyes. "And I have a bad feeling about all of this. All of you."

  "You should go now," Persephone tells her. "I don't want you here today if you can't be happy for me."

  "You can't mean that?" she asks in a cry.

  "What am I to do? Let someone stay who is hoping this ends badly?"

  "I don't want it go badly. I just fear that--"

  "Stop," I shout. "Think of the babies," I say, wrapping my arms around Persephone's waist and pressing my palms to her full belly.

  "That is exactly who I am thinking of," Gaia shouts, fleeing the room, sobbing as she runs down the hall.

  I pull Persephone into a tight embrace as her shoulders shake. "I can't believe she said those things to me," Sephy cries.

  "Shhh, my love. It's okay now. I've got you."

  "How do you know you will always love me?" she asks. "I know you say you will but how can you be certain?"

  "This morning I went to the ocean, told the sea my plans: that today I would make marriage vows to the mother of my child, the heir to the water. It rejoiced at my news, and the waves crashed in a symphony that reached new heights. There was no doubt, only pure bliss. That is the way I feel when I look at you."

  Persephone's eyes soften at my words. "Thank you for saying that. I feel so sure too but then Gaia placed so much doubt in my mind."

  "She just has her own reasons for doubting you. Maybe she is mourning the loss of what life was."

  Persephone nods, and just then the other gods enter the chamber.

  "There our bride is," Ares says, a big smile on his face.

  "Is it strange for three brothers to marry the same goddess?" Persephone asks, blinking away any traces of tears and looking between me, Hades, and Zeus.

  Hades shakes his head. "We each have our own realms, and we plan on sharing you equally. There won't be any strangeness between us."

  "I haven't been to the Underworld," she admits. "Is that crazy? To marry someone when I've never even been to their home?"

  "Not as crazy as carrying four different gods' children at once,” I say with a smirk. "Besides, we have a lifetime to learn all there is to know."

  "True," she says, taking a deep breath. "Gaia was just here," she tells the others, "and she said it was all happening too fast, so I was just..."

  Hades frowns. "Do you think this is too fast?"

  Persephone lifts her eyebrows, a smile drifting across her face. "Honestly? No. I feel like this is a culmination."

  "No," I tell her. "Not the culmination. Only the beginning."

  An hour or so later, we are in a great hall, music in the air and guests celebrating with us. Our wedding ceremony went smoothly, Gaia wasn't to be seen, and Persephone only had eyes for us.

  Now, flutes of nectar are in everyone's hands, except mine -- my hand is on my wife's belly. It seems to grow an inch every hour.

  If I'm right, she'll have our children before the night is through.

  "Toasts! Toasts!" guests chant, asking for wedding toasts.

  Everyone is smiling, relishing this moment of pure love.

  Clotho stands, flute of wine in hand, and her sisters Atropos and Lachesis join her. The Fates are dressed to impress today, and no wonder: a wedding feast means raucous partying for the gods and goddesses all through the night.

  And many mortals are here to celebrate as well, coming from distant farms and fields to honor their Goddess of Harvest on her wedding day. Plenty of men and gods for the Fates to choose from, even though the four of us are off the table.

  "May we offer a toast to Persephone," Clotho asks, her voice alluring and velvety smooth. Persephone nods, clapping her hands. Everything is going just as it should.

  "May your daughters be brave and bold and wise. And may you never see them hurting, not once, not twice."

  Then Lachesis speaks next: "May your love run deep and never fade, may your face stay young and never gray." This receives a smattering of cheers from the guests.

  Atropos clears her throat and continues, "And may you understand that pleasure comes with pain. That love comes with anger; it comes with rage." She must see the worry on our eyes because she adds, "Do not fret, all things must change, but love that lasts takes center stage."

  "Now," Clotho finishes. "Raise your glasses and close your eyes." We do as she says, laughing. "The wish is simple; the wish is wise. Love never fails unless it dies."

  We salute with our glasses, and we each kiss our bride. I let my lips linger on hers, savoring the moment for what it is. The first day of the rest of our lives.

  When I pull back I see Gaia behind a pillar, in the distance, watching, with a hand raised as if indicating no.

  I don't know what.

  But something seems to wrap around my heart and I know Persephone sees it too. Feels it too.

  Sephy points her out as Gaia runs away.

  Then I look at Sephy's other husbands and our faces turn to scowls. Something has shifted.

  I reach for Sephy's hand, but it's too late. Hades already has grabbed hold of it, clutching her as if holding on for dear life.

  Our moment of marital bliss lasts for but a moment before things begin to crack, as if an omen has fallen over us.

  But before I can put words to the feeling, Persephone begins to moan. She grabs her belly as her water breaks.

  "I'm having the babies," she tells us. "Now."

  Part II

  Twenty-One Years Later

  12

  Persephone

  "So, then what happened?" Harlow asks me as I finish my story, leading up to the delivery of my four beautiful daughters.

  Harlow is so beautiful, her pink hair, the sparkles on her skin and the seashells in her hair. I think of the crown Poseidon gave me on my wedding day, the day she was born. Tears fill my eyes once more as I look at her, the memories flooding back. I pray her men never hurt her the way mine did me.

  I was so betrayed by the men I thought loved me.

  Looking at her now, she looks similar to me when I was her age, her belly so round and full; she is ready to become a mother.

  Twenty-one years is a long time not to see your daughter.

  I pray it isn't like that for her or Remedy when they give birth. But where Harlow is soft, even now I see a fire in Rem's eyes, an anger swelling like it did in her father, Ares.

  "Yeah," Remedy asks. Lark and Tennyson hold one another's hands, but they look at me, imploring me for answers. "So, you were at the wedding feast, your water broke, and our dads started getting weird?"

  "They changed so fast. One minute they were so kind and loving to me, then the labor began, and things began to deteriorate. Words were said... horrid accusations and cruelty... all centered around me. They told me I had to choose between them. And there I was, about to deliver my babies. Instead of coming to my aid, they began to insist I was tricking them, pretending to love them only to get pregnant."

  "You weren't, though, were you?" Tennyson asks. "You loved them."

  "I did. But it was like the moment Gaia entered our wedding feast, something changed between all of us."

  "Are you thinking she is the reason they turned on you?"

  I press my fingers to my temples, wanting to explain as best as I can to my daughters. "I know she was to blame for taking you four from me. As I began to deliver you, your fathers were practically seething in anger. You know how I explained how quickly I grew you? Well, that is how quickly their love turned to rage."

  Harlow presses her hand on my arm. "Oh, Mother," she cries. "You've been through so much."

  I wipe my eyes. It is so freeing to finally be able to share this story with them. "I never wanted you to believe you weren't wanted." My shoulders shake. "I've been so scared. It's Gaia's fault yo
u were taken. And it's your fathers’ I was locked away."

  "Gaia?" Remedy asks. "She wouldn't hurt you."

  Lark nods. "Everything my hawks have told me leads me to believe the same thing, Mother."

  "No. She was there when you were born. She came as I began to birth you. She helped, and I wanted her to know that the conversation before the wedding no longer mattered. That I loved her. I told her as much."

  Lark shakes her head. "Then why do you blame--"

  "She is the one who took you from me," I tell her urgently. "I gave you life, kissed your perfect heads, and she swaddled you up, told me to rest and then...." I begin to cry more deeply.

  "What?" Rem asks, covering her mouth. Her bright red hair shining as sun filters through the window. The sky is taunting us. So bright and beautiful when in here, it feels so dark as I share these hidden truths with my daughters who need to hear their story at long last.

  "She took you away," I tell them. "Left Mount Olympus and I never saw her again."

  "Mother." Lark wipes the tears from her eyes, shocked.

  "But I could feel you. All this time, all these years. I could feel your hearts beating, even though we were apart. I knew you were out there, alive. And that is all that mattered. I prayed... I prayed to see you again. And now, at long last my prayers have been answered."

  "And then our fathers...?" Harlow asks. "They betrayed you too?"

  "I woke, asking for my daughters, but they laughed at me; told me the person I thought was my best friend was nothing but a thief. I begged them to go after you, but they couldn't find you. There was some sort of barrier between you and them, and that angered them more than anything else. They said I was the reason they couldn't find you. Said I must have conspired with Gaia to hide you all from your fathers ... and of course, I hadn’t. There was just no reasoning with them."

  "And then they locked you in the Underworld?" Remedy asks.

  Before I can answer her, a great boom surges through the building. I have returned to Mount Olympus with my daughters, to the very hall where I celebrated my wedding feast.

  Their partners are all outside, keeping watch on the property while we talk privately. We have no idea if their fathers will be joining forces if they somehow manage to break free of their cages.

  Especially since no one knows where Hades is. We are guessing he went to set the other gods free, realizing we were absent from our realms.

  We may be goddesses, but we can't be everywhere at once.

  Thinking of Hades make my stomach tighten. I loved him so.

  All of them so.

  How can love change so fast? Turn from something beautiful to something wrecked?

  Hades told me, the night we met, that this love would ruin us both.

  He was so very right.

  "What is that noise?" Lark asks. Immediately her feathers emerge, she is no longer simply a woman. She is a phoenix, and more powerful than I ever dreamed she might be.

  I shake my head; I don’t know. It's been so long since I've been to Mt. Olympus, though I am honestly surprised I got here so easily, without anyone attempting to stop me from gaining entry to the place that was once my home.

  No one came to find me, not for all those years.

  But who would risk the Underworld? Risk fighting the will of such powerful gods, for me?

  Now, I am stronger than ever, after keeping my power at bay for so long while I was locked in a cage in the Underworld.

  And now, it's not just me who is strong. I have four daughters, all full-fledged goddesses. More powerful than their fathers ever imagined they might be.

  An argument grows to a roar outside, but then it stops and in walks Gaia.

  I swallow.

  Shock washes over me.

  How dare she come here.

  13

  Persephone

  "Gaia!" Remedy says, jumping from where she has been sitting, her hand on her round belly. "Do you realize--"

  I know Rem wants to set things straight, but I have to interrupt. It's too painful to see the woman who stole my daughters from me.

  "I don't want you here," I shout, standing as Harlow's hand clutches mine.

  "Listen to me, Persephone," Gaia says, rushing over to me. "I'm trying to help you."

  "No," I say, my voice blazing with hatred for the girl I thought was my best and closest friend.

  "I knew you would be angry with me. But I'm trying to help you. I've always been trying to help you. You have it all wrong."

  "I have it wrong? It was you who took my daughters in the middle of the night. You took my life right out from under me. Anything I could've salvaged with the gods was ruined the moment you stole my children. When the gods realized their daughters were gone and that they couldn't get access to them, who do you think they blamed?" I ask her, seething.

  She shakes her head, tears filling her eyes. She looks so old, so weary. Like she lost a fight.

  "They blamed me, Gaia. They thought I had been making plans with you to keep them from their girls."

  "Is that what you think?" she scoffs as if dismissing what I am saying. "That had I not taken them you and the gods would have reconciled? That things would have been all right?"

  "It would have been better than what happened," I tell her plainly. "I didn't even have a chance to fix things with them. They were so angry after the wedding and things just got worse and worse throughout the delivery until you took our daughters. You are the reason they locked me up. You are the reason they hate me."

  Tears streak Gaia's cheeks. "You're blaming me when I was the only trying to help you."

  "What do you mean trying to help?" Lark asks, stepping between us. As she moves, a plumage of feathers drift out from behind her. Her raven hair is colored with bright shades of green and purple. She looks like a mythical creature. And somehow, she's my flesh and blood.

  Gaia tries to explain. "I knew the gods were planning on locking you up. When I was there helping you deliver the girls, I heard them plotting."

  "And you didn't tell me?"

  "I did what I thought was best." She runs a hand over her long, thick braid, now flecked with grey. "Had I told you what needed to be done, you would never have let me take your daughters––"

  I cut her off. "Of course, I wouldn't."

  "Don't you see, Sephy?"

  Hearing my nickname on her lips causes my eyes to fill with tears. How long has it been since someone called me by that name? Any name? How long since someone even looked into my eyes?

  Twenty-one years, that's how long.

  "Listen Sephy, had I told you they were going to take your daughters from you and lock you up, there's no way you would have given them over freely. You would have fought until the death to keep them in your arms and it would have cost all five of you your lives."

  She exhales and begins pacing the large room, her words echoing off the high ceiling. "I took your daughters knowing it was the only way to keep you all safe. I found places for them all over the Earth."

  At that, she stops pacing, and turns, looking at Rem. "I thought I had found a safe place for you," she says, tears spilling down her cheeks. "The last thing I wanted was for you to be put in danger, to make you believe you weren't wanted. You are so beautiful, Rem, and so brave. I tried. I tried for all of you to be somewhere safe, where you would be looked after until you turned twenty-one. Until you were strong enough to come after your mother yourselves."

  "Why didn't you just go get Persephone? Explain all this earlier?" Harlow asks. "Why did you wait twenty-one years?"

  "I didn't know where she was. I spent two decades searching Heaven and Earth from her. For you," she adds, looking into my eyes. "And of course, you were in the one place I didn't have access to. The Underworld. The gods weren't stupid when they put you there. They knew I was your best friend and they knew that was the one place I'm not able to go. I'm Mother Earth and have no place in hell."

  Sitting back down, she reaches for my hands, her stor
y is softening me to her, and I let her take them.

  Is it because I ache for a friend? Or is it because the story holds so much truth?

  "I put a barrier between the gods and their daughters," she tells us. “It has taken so much strength for me to keep them safe, that much of the world is in turmoil, the land, and sea in chaos because I have done a poor job. When I created the barrier between the gods and the girls, it forced the barrier between all gods and goddesses and the girls. There were a few times I was able to shift, but only sometimes, and afterward it would make me so weak I could barely move for months at a time. I gave each of them rings hoping against hope that one day... One day all the pieces would fall into place. The rings are what shielded them from their fathers. Once they put them on, as we all know, it unlocked the story I tried to keep at bay, in order to keep everyone safe."

  Remedy wipes her eyes. "You did that so that one day we would find one another. Find our mother."

  She nods. "I'm sorry it took so long."

  "You did that," I ask in barely a whisper. My eyes filled with so much sorrow and so much regret. "You made all those sacrifices for me?"

  "You're my best friend, Persephone," she says, clasping my hand tightly. "I love you." Tears flood her face. "You thought I was against you, but all this time I was only trying to protect you and your precious girls."

  "I'm so sorry," I tell her. "I was so wrong about everything. I should have listened to you all along. You are the only person who could see clearly. The gods were cruel, you saw that plainly. You warned me and told me not to marry them. I was so naïve, a fool. Instead of hearing you, I let them take everything."

  I pull Gaia into my arms, so grateful for her, knowing we wouldn't be here right now, all of my daughters and I, together, if it weren't for her.

  "So, what do you want to do now?" Harlow asks us.

  I look around the room at my daughters.

  Before I answer, Rem speaks up. "We need to go kill our fathers. Once and for all.