The Avatars -- Chapter 7: Blood, Duty, and Tears a.k.a. Two Castles
Zephyr stood just inside the double doors that led out into a railed embrasure, watching but not seeing the bloody rays of the sinking sun spread across the darkening sky. The steady dripping of blood was soft but constant; he ignored both the sound and the pain. Now that one of the doors he was standing before had lost some of its gorgeously-tinted panes, he had a perfect view of the sunset.
He had no fear that a small fragment of glass could have pierced into his bloodstream, traveled to his heart, and killed him gods wouldn't die; couldn't die. But they could feel pain. Zephyr's lips twisted at the thought. Yes, scores and scores of pain.
Like all of the gods and most mortals, he knew the fates of Tantalus, Sisyphus, and Prometheus. Tantalus, forever tempted by the water just beyond his reach that would quench his raging thirst...Sisyphus, who would never cease his tiresome, pointless task...and the one who perhaps deserved the most pity of all, Prometheus, who was chained on Mount Caucasus and had his liver torn out daily by the cruel, savaging beak of a vulture.
His agony was of an entirely different nature. His unhurt hand rested on the window ledge, the flesh under his nails bloodless from the pressure he was exerting on the cool stone. Zephyr's outrage over the news of his betrothal had long faded now his anger burned low and hot, like glowing orange embers on a deceptively-cool hearth. He recalled, with some regret, the wreck he had made of Aeolus's study. The brunt of his fury had unleashed itself upon the room; he had called up wild gales like those that moved inland from the sea with the strength of hurricanes and the destructiveness of tornadoes... Distantly, Zephyrus wondered if Aeolus would be able to put the room back in order.
Notus's pleas for reconsideration and mediation had gone largely ignored. Aeolus had watched with level eyes, his arms crossed over his chest to protect himself from the pain that reverberated from doing this to his friend. It had taken both Boreas and Eurus to restrain Zephyr. They would have been strong as mortal men, but as they were gods, their strength was exceptional. Zephyrus, in all his wild rage and unthinking temper, had been unable to resist their combined power.
They had seated him again forcibly, keeping hands glowing with azure blue and fog gray power on his arms until Aeolus had walked out of the room. Zephyrus had shoved away from them and out of his chair, breathing harshly.
By the time Aeolus returned, Zephyr was ready to argue and more composed but far from calm. Most of their discussion had taken place during that second meeting. Afterwards, Boreas had planned to let Zephyr pound him in a training session, since any injuries he incurred could be healed instantly with minimal pain, but Eurus knew. He knew it wouldn't have worked this time, and he watched him walk away with those cool blue eyes.
Zephyr's mouth twisted again. Clever Eurus, who always knew everything. Of the five wind gods, they had the most friction between them. When they got along, it seemed like the perfect friendship. When they didn't, all hell broke loose. One of the attributes Zephyrus resented most about his friend was his iron control, the control that he himself did not possess. He wanted to feel alive, to feel the strongest emotions at all times, and that was how he lived.
Fortunately, Boreas and Eurus had persuaded Notus not to go after him. It was Notus, oddly, who understood the least about them. He was always ready to make peace, to flirt with pretty girls, and to waste his time in frivolous pursuits...and he still did not understand Zephyr.
At first, it had been the idea of marriage that had so disturbed Zephyrus. Out of the best known-deities, only Zeus and Hera, Poseidon and Amphitrite, Hades and Persephone, and Aphrodite and Hephaestus were married. Zeus and Hera's marriage was something of a joke it was the favorite pastime of idle gods to gossip about who was Zeus's latest paramour and how Hera would act, judging by her previous behavior. Even Poseidon, who professed to love his queen, had had many lovers and sired other children.
Aphrodite and Hephaestus's marriage was a different sort of joke. It was an accepted fact that Aphrodite would never take her marriage vows seriously and that Hera had wedded her to her crippled son to safeguard her husband from Aphrodite's charms. Whether or not Hephaestus was aware of his wife's infidelity was a widely-disputed topic within some circles. Personally, Zephyrus thought no man could be so dense when Aphrodite was so transparent, but he felt pity for the kindly, disfigured god. He spent his days laboring in the forge to do the bidding of the gods, making beautiful pieces in his spare time for the wife that would never love him.
The only "pure" marriage that seemed to exist was the one of Hades and Persephone, and he had kidnaped her and tricked her into remaining in the Underworld with him. Gods didn't marry lightly, because eternal love, in its most literal sense, was practically nonexistent. Zephyrus closed his eyes, remembering his angry words to Aeolus.
*flashback*
Livid, Zephyr whipped around the air currents around him tumbled over each other tempestuously, ruffling his hair and his clothes. "How can you do this to me?!" he demanded. "You cannot wed me to some naiad I don't even know!"
His king regarded him gravely. "You know I have that power, as you are my vassal, Zephyrus." The golden spiral symbol on his skin shone even brighter; Zephyrus's own emblem was blazing with the strength of his emotion.
"You don't have the right," he countered hotly. "Even among mortals, a marriage is a binding contract. Do you not understand?! No god has ever annulled a marriage. You are trapping me for eternity."
The sorrow Aeolus needed to keep at bay flashed over his face.
Zephyrus noticed it, in his fury, and took his chance. "Why are you doing this to me, Aeolus? You yourself understand the restrictions kingship places upon you why are you chaining me?"
Aeolus hesitated. So it had come to this, after all...and he would have to tell him the brutal truth. "I didn't have a choice," he admitted heavily.
He responded with a rude phrase that clearly conveyed his disbelief.
"It was either I discipline you, or the great gods would do it for me! You brought this on yourself, Zephyrus. You left me no choice. The lesson they mean to teach you is one of responsibility and one of fidelity."
Shock anger denial. All flitted over his face within the passage of a few moments. "I have done nothing that other gods have not done before."
One of the other three, for the first time, spoke. It was Boreas. "That doesn't condone your behavior, Zephyr. Men are naturally jealous gods are even more so, and very possessive. That business with a married goddess..."
"That was once," he protested, "and I would never have touched her had she claimed she was unhappy with her husband."
"That is no justification," Aeolus said sternly. "You were betrayed by the goddess Fraus to Zeus, and you know she, as his niece, holds great sway over him."
"Look at Aphrodite! Look at how many affairs she's had with men, married or not, mortal or gods."
Eurus, who had watched everything unfold with his usual dispassionate expression, spoke up. "It all depends on who holds the power. Aphrodite, as one of the great goddesses, has power you are a lesser god, and a young one at that."
"Then gods are hypocrites," Zephyrus snarled, enraged that where other gods had done much worse than him, he was being punished most severely.
"And all men are liars," Aeolus confirmed calmly. "What made you think otherwise?" His sapphire blue eyes held his vassal's firmly until the latter looked away.
*end flashback*
Zephyrus was left with the sick, humiliating feeling of helplessness. The thought of marriage meant less to him than the fact that even Aeolus had been disappointed in him, that Boreas had disapproved of his actions. It hurt him deeply to know they thought so low of him. "How did it get this far?" he whispered to himself. "It is a terrible, terrible thing to have your own friends despise you." None of them understood; they would never understand him.
By admitting the pain he felt, it was the closest he would ever come to acknowledging his broken heart.
*flashback*
"So what are you going to do, then?" Aeolus demanded, his darkened eyes smoldering. "Refuse to marry the girl? Become a disloyal husband so Zeus will have even greater reason to punish you?"
Zephyr had once thought himself to be in Zeus's favor...the great Thunderer did like his style, his loose philosophy concerning women, and his cheek, but Zeus was also fickle the phrase "out of sight, out of mind" fit him best. No wonder he forgot his wife the minute she left the room.
Facing Aeolus, the copper-haired god said coldly, "No. Contrary to your expectations, I will marry the girl, if it is your will. And I will be a faithful husband until the end of time but I will be miserable every day of my life, and you will live with the knowledge that it is you who inflicted such unhappiness upon me."
*end flashback*
Perhaps that parting shot hadn't been quite fair, but it had been true. Zephyr sighed deeply. Aeolus's guesses that he would either rebel against the great gods until they bodily forced him to the altar or be a lying, cheating, scum of a husband only confirmed Zephyrus's thoughts to what a low opinion the ebony-haired man had of him.
Tapping his fingers on the iron latch, Zephyrus followed the slow descent of Apollo's flaming chariot idly, sharpening his vision to catch a glimpse of the fire-maned steeds. Their pawing hooves and tossing heads held his attention until they disappeared past the line of the horizon.
At last, Boreas's footsteps sounded at the very end of the hall. He had purposefully teleported some distance away to warn Zephyrus of his presence. Lifting his head, the West Wind stared at his mentor piercingly. The last rays of the dying seem seemed to have settled on Boreas's tall frame; his silvery hair was gilded with the lightest touch of gold, and there seemed to be a radiance in his grave features that Zephyr had not seen there before.
"Mother was always worried about you, you know," he said, his voice echoing in the shadowy depths of the hall. Their childhood had been a very long time ago, and Boreas, as the oldest, remembered more than the others. It relieved Zephyr, for a moment, that he had chosen to start with some unimportant childhood recollection instead of badgering him about the marriage.
"You were such an odd child lively, and so capricious, but...you could see it in your physical form: the litheness, the slenderness. It always seemed as if you were a touch more fragile than the rest of us, especially compared to Notus he always seemed more robust, and it was emphasized because he was closest to you in age."
Flushing slowly, Zephyrus snapped, "Gods don't die. She needn't have worried about my fragility.'"
Unperturbed, Boreas said soothingly, "Of course not, but she feared you might become a cripple, like Hephaestus. What she didn't understand was that you felt things more strongly than the rest of us. I wouldn't call it a handicap, per se, but you were always the most sensitive, at heart." His eyes bored into Zephyrus's disconcertingly. "You seem to be different now, but you aren't fooling everyone."
He shifted uncomfortably, not knowing whether to be relieved or distressed at this spark of understanding that Boreas had exhibited. So he did know...
"So you felt things too strongly once and decided it would never happen again, didn't you? You tell yourself you live for the moment, but you never do it. All you seem to be interested in is women...but none of them have ever meant enough to you. You don't let them come close enough to hurt you. If you close them off, they can't hurt you, is that right?" Boreas shook his head. "Were you thinking of spending all eternity this way, flitting from woman to woman and never letting any of them into your heart?"
Zephyr's face was suffused with heat from embarrassment and also from shock at hearing Boreas talk about such a strange subject. The topic had never come up between them before, and he couldn't remember the last time when Boreas had even used the word "love" in a sentence.
He had also come a little too close to comfort, and Zephyrus pulled back from confiding in Boreas. It was Boreas he had always tagged along after, Boreas who he had always wanted to be like. But he wouldn't forget what today had revealed about his friends' opinions about him.
"I don't see how it's any of your business," he said coldly, shoving his ruined hand into his pocket and ignoring the white-hot streaks of pain that jolted across his hand
"As you say," Boreas replied. "You are expected at Poseidon's palace at your earliest convenience." He took his leave of his moody friend then and returned the way he had come, first by foot and then by magical transport. The West Wind was left to stew and heal his injured hand.
At last, Zephyrus turned away from the velvet-dark sky. His eyes were hardened emeralds, glittering and opaque, and as he strode down the hall to the transfer portal, he whispered, "You are still my king, Aeolus, and I once followed you with love and trust, but no longer. You have betrayed my trust, and you will never know what you lost."
~~~~*~~~~
Ayla's expression was icily serene as she nodded coolly to a few of her acquaintances in the bustling halls they were busy even at this hour of the night. Before long, she had delivered her message to Amphitrite, who had thanked her for her trouble and dismissed her.
Just as she was about to return to her quarters on Mount Olympus for a long-desired rest, a familiar voice called her name, and she turned with a tired smile. "Lady Michiru," she said formally with a curtsey.
Hiding her exasperation, the lesser princess all but dragged her into her room. "Ayla, is all that protocol necessary?"
"Of course," she replied, "you know my reasons." Noticing that Michiru herself a bit perturbed in comparison to her normal composure, she laid a hand on her arm. "Is something wrong?" Her perceptive blue eyes scanned the sea princess's clothing. It was much more elaborate than usual, a filmy green gown encrusted with pearls and emeralds.
"Well not really. No, I don't believe you can call it wrong...it's just that...Ayla, Poseidon and Zeus have arranged a marriage for me," she said pensively. "It's to take place very soon."
Ayla stared at her. "With whom?"
"Lord Zephyrus, the West-Wind. Do you know him?" Michiru spoke as calmly as if she was introducing two dignitaries at a formal occasion.
"No, we've never met. Did he...seek your hand?"
"I have not seen him in several years. Four decades, at the very least, and we were not well-acquainted. No, I believe this marriage is intended as a sort of punishment for him. The Wind Gods are of good repute, but he is known to be the wildest. I hear there was some trouble with a woman a while back, and a wife of one of the lesser gods. He is rumored to be very charming, very handsome, and a great flirt. They hold I will have a...calming influence on him."
Her description assured Ayla that this was the type of man she had always disliked. Sliding her arms around her friend carefully, she whispered, "Oh, Michiru, I'm so sorry."
She held tightly to the smaller woman for a moment, then drew away quickly.
"You don't seem as upset as one might expect," she ventured cautiously.
The beautiful princess shrugged slender shoulders over which her aquamarine hair cascaded with great effect. She sat down at the vanity and picked up a hairbrush, running it through her curls. "I have to prepare to meet him," she stated, "he'll be here quite soon. Would you mind giving me a hand?"
Ayla walked over, surveying the silver net decorated with interspersed gemstones of varying hues of blue and green. She worked methodically, running the brush through her friend's hair in gentle, rhythmic strokes.
With a sigh, Michiru surveyed her reflection in the mirror. "I'm not so upset, because I always knew something like this would happen. And who I am to dispute the will of King Poseidon? As an ocean goddess, I am subject to his will. It's not so bad," she said with an attempt at a smile, "perhaps we will find we have similar interests."
"But this is something that will last forever," Ayla said softly.
"I know." They were quiet for a few minutes; Ayla adjusted the twinkling net and stepped away, setting the brush down with a soft clink. "Thank you."
"It was my pleasure." After some deliberation, she asked, "Have you spoken with Haruka?"
"Oh yes. But she also recognizes the futility of defiance."
A flurry of knocks sounded, interrupting their conversation. A messenger entered, bowing first to Michiru and then making a shallower bow to Ayla. "Lady Michiru, your presence is requested in the throne room."
"Thank you," she told him with a serene smile. He left as quickly as he had come, and Michiru crossed the room to the now-open door. With a backwards glance, she said, "I've kept you from your duties, Ayla...forgive me."
"No. Athena sent me with a message for Amphitrite; I had no other tasks."
She nodded. "Tell the others I said hello."
"Of course. I wish you well, Michiru. I hope Lord Zephyrus is deserving of you."
~~~~*~~~~
Once Michiru was on her way, Ayla retreated to one of the underwater gardens, her heart heavy with worry for her friend. Suddenly, a rustling noise alerted her to someone else's presence, and she stood warily, eyeing the waving seaweed.
To her surprise, the infuriating healer who had been in her mother's village emerged. He looked unapproachable, dressed in fine garments and wearing an irate expression. When he made eye contact with her, she shivered slightly at the force of his gaze before bowing her head. "Lord Zoisite."
He blinked, trying to remember where he had seen her before. He never forgot a pretty face, but he was certainly preoccupied at the moment. Then it struck him, and he smiled guardedly. "Ami, isn't it?"
"Yes. It's an odd coincidence that I found you here... when I made inquiries, I was unable to receive a satisfactory answer as to your whereabouts."
Clever woman, he thought. She looked much better than the last time he'd seen her, which was a very good thing, but he didn't appreciate her poking her pert little nose into his business. "Yes, well, I work mostly as an itinerant healer," he said with a roguish grin. "It makes sense that I would be hard to track down. Was there a reason you were looking for me?"
Her cheeks warmed out of anger and embarrassment. Tossing her head slightly, she replied, "Yes, I meant to thank you for your kindness to my mother, but you were amazingly elusive."
"Then I apologize for the inconvenience."
His smile needled her, as did his smooth tone. He made her so angry and for no good reason, but it was hard for her to dispel her first impression of him the warmth, the gentleness. It was hard to reconcile this charming, suave courtier with that image.
When she remained silent, Zephyr said, "If you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I have some business to attend to at the moment." He bowed deeply, and she was forced to return the courtesy.
"I'm so sorry to have taken up your time."
He was suddenly embarrassed for having provoked her, but it was so hard to resist, and he had been in such a bad temper...
Crossing her arms, she waited for him to leave, staring determinedly at a sea anemone. Suddenly, a warm, callused hand cupped her cheek, and she looked up at him in surprise, her blue eyes going wide like a cornered fawn's. "You look much recovered, Ami. I'm glad."
Although she did not step away, her eyes narrowed even as her skin warmed under his touch. "One cannot cry forever, you know."
"Especially not one as beautiful as you," he retorted.
Her eyes widened before she turned scarlet and finally stepped away from him as propriety demanded. He was dangerous, as she had known all along. "Your urgent business?" she inquired tartly.
He smiled at her, and it was the same smile he had first given her, without malice or scorn. "I have all the time in the world," he said, and it was true.
"Nonetheless, since you have reminded me... Goodbye, Ami. Should you ever need to find my...elusive person again, you might inquire here for someone of my description. It seems that I will be frequenting the palace quite often in the next few months." His eyes darkened slightly, and he lifted her hand to his lips before he stalked away. She was left standing in the garden with an annoyed look on her face and proceeded to rub violently at the skin on the back of the hand he had kissed.
~~~~*~~~~
AN: Whew...heavy stuff in the beginning of the chapter, and then some nice Ami/Zoi friction. A lot more of Zephyrus's character has been revealed ^^ and I'm inching away from the Ami is shy, sweet, etc. etc. image... Unfortunately, Zoi is a little too preoccupied to notice at the moment.
More fun, ominous foreshadowing that the friendships in this story have eroded slightly for example, notice that none of the senshi have mentioned to each other their encounters with the Shittenou...
Two quick things: Fraus is actually the Roman goddess of treachery, but I couldn't find her Greek counterpart and didn't have the time to search for it when I was writing this...if anyone puts the effort into finding out, I would love to replace her with a Greek goddess. Also, Michiru's name remains the same because there are no suitable M-names of ocean goddesses for her that I could find...and if I changed it to something unrecognizable, I think there would be a lot of complaints ^.~
Next chapter, Mehalia and Boreas have their re-meeting, and the ever-clueless Notus (poor Neph...) will once again run into "the forest urchin." Thank you for reading! ^^
~Ice
The Avatars
