by James Welsh
Hephaestus smashed his hammer against the lightning-bolt. With every strike, millions of sparks danced off the anvil and onto the cold floor. The sparks bouncing reminded him of, oddly enough, raindrops bouncing off a roof. Hephaestus was sweating sheets of water, the moisture running off his misshapen face and sizzling on the heated anvil below. He was sweating not because of the hard work – he knew nothing but hard work – but because he was shaping a lightning-bolt for Zeus. And everyone knew that Zeus only fought when he absolutely had to.
As Hephaestus banged away at the bolt, Athena and Zeus were a short distance away. Athena was trying on the winged sandals, admiring the work that Hephaestus had done. The feathery wings on the sandals were no more – instead, the limping god had quickly fashioned miniature wings made of metal and fitted them to the shoes. The sandals could certainly get Athena through the volcano and back out into the outside world. Athena finished lacing up the shoes and tried out the flying – before she even thought it, the shoes lifted her off the ground and held her, suspended, in the air above Zeus. The King God looked up with a little smile on his face.
“A lot has changed since I’ve been dead,” Zeus said as Athena hovered. “Hades is plotting to overthrow the world, our family is in chaos, and you’ve learned to fly.”
“These aren’t my shoes – I just borrowed them, from Hermes.”
“Yes, yes, of course. But he let you borrow them,” Zeus said. “Gods and men alike have been trying to pry those sandals off of Hermes’ feet for centuries. The fact that he gave up his shoes to help you is telling.”
“Well, I’ll think about that later.” Athena settled back down on the floor. “Right now I’m trying not to get us all killed.”
“Of course, of course.”
Athena looked at Zeus curiously for a moment. It may have been her imagination, but it seemed that Zeus was more pleasant than she remembered him being. When she pointed this out, Zeus smiled again and said, “I have my reasons.”
“Is it because you’re alive again?” Athena asked.
Zeus shook his head. “Yes and no. I’m more alive now than I’ve ever been. I suppose there’s something I should have told you a long time ago, although you probably already suspected it.”
Athena waited, a bit impatient, as Zeus continued. “You see, when you were born all those years ago, the birth was messy. You and everyone else probably figured that out already. For women, it’s bad enough – imagine what it must have been like for me, a man, having to give birth through my ear! But there’s something I’ve managed to keep hidden since that night, and…well, perhaps it’s better to show you.”
He leaned forward and pulled away the hair near his ears. He showed Athena what looked like a spider’s web of scars running from each of the ears. Athena looked at them with idle curiosity and asked, “Were those from my birth?”
Zeus nodded. “You see, your birth was so horrific that it almost broke my skull. Gods are not supposed to feel pain, I know. Trust me, I was just as surprised as you must be now. But when you were born, when you broke free from me…the pain was incredible. It was a trauma that I never felt before, a pain even greater than when you stabbed me with that spear. See, my daughter, gods have their armor to protect them from the outside, but they are all skin and bones on the inside.”
Athena said nothing, and so Zeus sighed and said, “Ever since the night you were born, I have felt a stabbing pain in my head. The mortals have their headaches and they think it’s a terrible thing, and it is. But when a god has a headache, it’s greater because a god is greater. For years now, I’ve had to deal with a headache that clawed at the inside of my head like some wounded animal. For years now, I’ve had days where I was simply too tired to get out of bed. For years now, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night, with my own blood pooled around me, the ichor draining from my ears. Even when I turned into a bull or an eagle, the pain never entirely vanished. So you see, that afternoon when you speared me, I was already dying, if not already dead.”
“And now?”
“Now, I feel no pain. You may have thought that you murdered me on that riverbank, but it wasn’t murder – at least I didn’t think it was murder. If anything, it was a mercy killing. Only in death was I separated from that terrible pain in the back of my skull. And even though I’m reunited with my body in the world now, the pain is no longer here. You not only brought me back to life, my daughter, but you reinvigorated me.”
As Zeus said this, Athena could feel a shallow, pulsing pain begin to settle in her ear, the same ear from which Zeus was reborn. A fear began to grip her, as she wondered if she would experience the same pain that has been plaguing Zeus for all of those years. The King God noticed the pained expression on his daughter’s face, and he asked sadly, “I’m afraid that you now have that same headache. Am I wrong?”
“It’s not too bad at the moment,” Athena said through gritted teeth.
Zeus nodded. “It began weakly for me too. As the years passed, though, the pain grew.”
“So I guess I have something to look forward to.”
“Don’t worry – we’ll figure out something for you. For now, though, we have more important things to deal with. Like I said before, my brother Hades is planning something, something terrible. I have seen that army of his massing in the Underworld – it’s unlike anything that I’ve ever seen before. I’m afraid that the moment that army marches, nothing will be able to stop it. I don’t think even I could stop it if I tried.”
“So what do we do?”
“You will need to go to Olympus – warn the gods there that Hades is planning to invade the world. Tell them that they will need to stop the army of shades before it is too late. That army will kill every mortal it finds, and for every person dead, that’s just another soldier in that army. It would not be long before the world is a wasteland and Hades’ army is infinite.”
“And what about Hades himself? Who will stand against him?”
Zeus’ face looked like granite. “I’ll fight him myself. He’s too powerful now – I don’t think any other god but myself can stop him. I think I might actually be too weak against him.”
Athena was incredulous. “You, too weak? You could tear the world in half with a lightning-bolt if you wanted to! If you can’t stop him, then who can?”
“I used to be that strong,” Zeus sighed, “but not now, not at this moment. I may be walking again in this world – you and Hephaestus can see that. But everyone else still thinks that I’m dead and gone. If they don’t believe in me, then what am I fighting for? What am I fighting with? That’s why I need you to go to Olympus. Tell the others that I have risen, tell them what Hades has planned, tell them to defend the world against the shade army. Judging by the way the Underworld is preparing for war, I would not be surprised if the invasion has already begun. But I need you to give these people hope – only then can I get my old strength back. And the moment I return to greatness is the moment that Hades will fall – and I will make sure that he falls harder than anything else has before. So go now, my child, go! Before it is too late for us all.”
Athena was reluctant to leave her father, so soon after they were reunited again. There was so much more she wanted to tell him. She was afraid of losing him again, this time possibly for good. But she saw the determination in her father’s eyes, and she knew better than to challenge him. If they worked together, they were more powerful than even they could comprehend. And so Athena nodded and leapt from the ground. Zeus waved as Athena propelled herself out of the cavern and through the winding tunnels towards the surface world. When Athena disappeared from view, Zeus turned and noticed that Hephaestus had watched Athena leave as well. But while Zeus watched Athena’s exit with pride and triumph, he noticed a profound look of sadness wash over the crippled god’s face. In his old, booming voice, Zeus called out, “Hephaestus!”
The smith-god turned and looked Zeus in th
e eyes. Hephaestus said, “If you don’t distract me, then I can weld these lightning-bolts together quicker.”
“Good – that’ll give me more time to talk with you,” Zeus said, strolling towards Hephaestus, thrilled that he didn’t have to run through waist-deep snow anymore. He was also glad to be dealing with the crippled Hephaestus, and not those bizarre wolfish creatures in the Underworld.
A wave of frustration splashed across Hephaestus’ face. “Please, just leave me alone – this one time, just leave me alone.”
Zeus looked at Hephaestus with pity. “I just wanted to think you for all that you did today, as well as what you will do later.”
“I just did as Athena asked,” Hephaestus said shortly, continuing his work. “She was the Queen, after all – what was I supposed to do? Refuse her command?”
“Well, I’m glad that you did it, anyway. You would not believe the torture I had in the Underworld. I’ve been running for days through a blizzard, trying not to get chewed up by a pack of beasts. And so I’m grateful that you did what you did, even if you did it for your own reasons.”
Hephaestus, still smashing his hammer against the lightning-bolts, straightening out the electricity, asked, “You said something else? Something about what I’ll do later?”
Zeus smiled. “We all need your help soon. I’ll need your help soon. When Hades invades this world, we’ll need every brave god and goddess we have to go to war. And you’re as brave as they come.”
“What makes you think that I’m brave? What makes you think you know me?” Hephaestus demanded.
“Well, you’re talking back to the most powerful god in the Universe. I would say that’s pretty brave.”
Hephaestus sneered. “And you wonder why I hate you? All you think about when dealing with others is yourself. You don’t care how anyone else feels. If I didn’t make weapons for you, you would probably disintegrate me with one of your bolts. I’m right, aren’t I?”
Zeus shook his head. “It’s something you’ll probably never understand, but I’ll say it anyway. Believe it or not, I do care for you, and not just because you make my weapons or because my wife loves you like the son you are. I do the things I do because the world needs some sense of order. If there isn’t order, what happens?”
“People get to make their own fates?” Hephaestus asked, giving the bolt a particularly loud smash with his hammer.
“Do you really want that? Do you really want Hades to rise up from the Underworld and conquer this world? This world and everything and everyone you love will fall unless I’m here to hold it up. I’m just being honest, although you may think I’m arrogant. A long time ago, I accepted this responsibility, this need to be the watchman of the world. You may think that all I do is drink and carry on affairs, but the truth is I’ve had to make some terrible decisions in my long life. I’ve had to watch people suffer from the choices I’ve made. But still, I made those choices, because if I didn’t, then someone else would. And while I have this world’s best interests at heart, someone else won’t be as kind. Do you think that Hades will allow you the freedom to make weapons, the thin you love doing the most in the entire world? I may take weapons from you to use, but he will take a lot more if he was the ruler. Do you think that if you were to end your isolation, that you would be welcomed back with open arms? I exiled you into this world because our family is a terrible creation. Our family tree has had a cancer in it since the beginning of time. They all distrust and hate one another with a passion – what do you think they’ll do to a short man with twisted legs and a slouched back? They would insult you, mock you, manipulate you. But they’ve forgotten what you look like, it’s been so long since they have seen you. And all they see from you now are the weapons that you make, and your weapons are beautiful, so they think you are beautiful. You have earned the jealousy of every single Olympian because of the weapons you make – why ruin such a wonderful thing? You have every right to hate me, but don’t you ever doubt me, because I will always win the day for you and anyone else who deserves it.”
A dull rumble echoed through the tunnels and into the cavern. Startled, Hephaestus asked, “Is it an earthquake.”
“No, no…it’s worse, much worse,” Zeus said, his eyes lit with either fear or excitement. “Give me my thunderbolts.”
Book 16
