Aphrodite’s Blessing
“Hey, auntie, you got a minute?” Arkonel asked through the solid door of his aunt’s bedroom. He had just finished giving his father a report and getting a lecture about moving too fast. But then again, too fast in his father’s eyes was several hundred years. Mortal time moved differently, and Arkonel’s love was in the mortal world. He had to move with her.
“You caught me at a bad time, darling. But I’ve got a minute for you, Arkonel. Just give me…ah, just wait out in the lobby. I’ll be quick, I promise.” Arkonel heard Aphrodite’s voice emerge from the bedroom, muffling the moans of an obviously male voice. He shook his head, smiling, and left the hallway to join Aphrodite’s child servants in the living room. The only non-immortal beings who could resist Aphrodite’s allure as a sex and love goddess.
“Would you like a drink, sir?” One of the children asked, and Arkonel shook his head.
“No, thank you. What’s your name, dearest?”
“Angela.”
“How did you end up in this nice lady’s service?” Arkonel asked. Aphrodite usually picked up the mortal street children to serve her, and placed them back in the world in respected private schools when they came of age and had to leave her service.
“My parents were murdered brutally by a psychotic man who ate them, afterwards.” The child said simply. With the power of love came the power of divine forgiveness – these children knew and accepted why they were there.
“Oh, dear. How old are you?”
“Eight years old on September third. Aphrodite said she’ll have to send me out into the world soon, my puberty is coming early. She’s giving me a choice of schools and parents, though.”
His aunt Aphrodite ran an adoption center that had offices throughout the mortal world. It guaranteed normal, healthy, happy 8-14 year old children, no matter how bad the background they had come from. Arkonel himself had considered adopting some of the children when they came of age and using them as his servants, or as his eyes and ears in the world. He just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
“Well, Angela, that sounds pretty exciting. Do you want to go to school?”
“Aphrodite teaches us lots of things, here, and I will miss it when I leave. But she says my brothers and sisters can visit me whenever they’d like to. And I can always talk to her if I really need to.”
“That’s right.” Arkonel said, smiling, then rose as Aphrodite entered the room. “Well met, aunt.”
“You’re a vibrant creature now a days, Arkonel.” Aphrodite flowed into the room, smiling and patting the children’s heads as they crowded around her. “Found that special someone, I assume?”
“Yes ma’am. I was just coming for your blessing and to…”
“Make her immortal.”
“Yes ma’am. You’re a mind reader.”
“No, I just know the language of love. Well, children, which one of you wants to get my tools?”
The children rushed to raise their hands. Aphrodite pursed her lips and then touched the head of Angela. “You were a very nice girl, taking time to talk to my nephew. You may retrieve my tools. And you others, come now. Have you offered Arkonel a drink?”
“Yes, mother.” They chorused. “He didn’t want one.”
“Well, good job. You may go and play while we chat.” Aphrodite shooed the children into their playroom. “Did she agree, dearest?”
“Yes ma’am. She’s sitting at home, getting ready for bed, right now. I just stopped by after reporting to my father to ask the favor of you.”
“Its not a favor at all, darling. More than one would be a favor. Indeed, it is a pleasure of mine to bless the union and bring a new piece of blood into Olympus. We need it, anyhow. The gods are getting restless.”
“I know. Cadmus has been horrible lately. I know what he uses the nymphs in his mansion for, but it doesn’t seem to be helping him.”
“I wish your brother would come and visit me. I could probably help him out.”
“I don’t think anyone can help that rat out. He can barely help himself.” Arkonel said, and then immediately apologized. “I know. True love is for everyone. Just sometimes he gets on my nerves.”
“Its okay, darling. I wasn’t going to yell at you.” Aphrodite assured him. “So, tell me. Have you consummated this union, yet?”
“No, we have not done more than kiss.”
“Good, then she has three instead of just two options to transition her first time to Olympus. Do you know them?”
“No, ma’am.”
“You and her may sleep together. This will initiate the change and is probably the most pleasurable. Assuming she is a virgin. She is young though, correct? You will probably be her first.”
Arkonel nodded. He knew he would be her first. And her last, if he had anything to do with it.
“The second way is by way of sleep. If she is sleeping now, when she awakens, she will be immortal, but she will not be transient like us. When she sleeps that night, she will be automatically transported to Olympus. Understand?”
“Yes ma’am. The third?”
“The third will be her first death. If she dies for whatever reason after I make this change, and it is before she sleeps again or sleeps with you, then she will automatically make the journey to Olympus. For example, if you leave to buy her an ice cream, and she gets hit by a truck, then she will be transported here. To me. Until you come to retrieve her.”
“So…I don’t think she plans to die tomorrow. Thank you, aunt, for doing this.”
“Sure, just don’t forget: love is a gift. It can not be taken or lost, only given. If you anger each other, you may act in ways that show your displeasure, but you will always love. It is like that human disease, AIDS – it spreads, and it can’t be cured.”
“And love comes from the strangest places?”
“Yes, it does. Look at Hephaestus and I.”
“I don’t need to look, I heard earlier.” Arkonel retorted and Aphrodite laughed.
“You speak the truth, dear boy. Now go back to her, if you’d like. The changes will be completed by sunrise, her time. As long as she remains alive to see that sunrise, she will join us on Olympus.”
“Don’t tell Cadmus, please.” Arkonel said.
“You know I won’t. He is trouble, even if he deserves love.” Aphrodite agreed. “Now will you get your butt out of here and go to the one you love? And remember – you can’t lay with her until sunrise, either, or you will not be able to give her the blessing of changing that way.”
“I doubt she would lay with me right now, anyway. She is not that comfortable with me yet. But, now I have permission to wait an eternity to join in that bonding with her. Thank you again, Aunt Aphrodite.” Arkonel hugged his aunt and then stood back, arms length. “Thank you.” He kissed both of her cheeks and then walked out of her house to make his return to the mortal world, and his love.
Arkonel arrived to find Ariana asleep in her own bed, peacefully slumbering. Not wanting to disturb her, he simply kissed her forehead and left her to her dreams, heading back to the immortal world for a chat with Hermes. He deserved to tell someone the happy news, and he knew that his uncle Hermes would be happy and probably arrange some special gift for the two. And to make it even better, he knew his uncle would not tell Cadmus of the new advancement in Arkonel’s existence.
“Hermes, you around?” Arkonel asked the empty void that was Olympus’ message center. “I’d love to chat.”
“Sure thing, meet me up in the square.” Hermes’ voice echoed from nowhere and everywhere, and Arkonel made his way out to the center of Olympus.
“What’s up?” Hermes asked him as Arkonel appeared from the shadows.
“I’ve got some stories to tell you…”
“Interacting with the mortals again, eh? You’d make a fine replacement if I ever decide to retire.” Hermes laughed. “Let’s find a place to sit and chat. Its been a few years.”
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