Defying Fate

Chapter 25-p1

Hermes had arranged the seating strategically, so that the four mortals would be along one side of the table, with Hermes at one end, as the host, and Zeus at the other. Odysseus sat on Hermes left, then Eurylochus, then Polites then Cassandra. Beside Cassandra sat Hestia, and further gods beyond, but Odysseus was surprised to see Athena join them at their end of the table. She was considered more powerful than that in every depiction of the gods he'd ever seen. But she sat next to Artemis, on Hermes' right, directly across from Odysseus.

Cassandra sat in the aforementioned "booster seat" which Hermes had produced seemingly out of nowhere. It strapped onto the back of her chair, and was tall enough that she was able to see over, and reach the table on her own, though her legs dangled high above the ground as she was placed unceremoniously in it.

She accepted her fate with her nose in the air, but her eyes kept flitting to Polites, who sat beside her, smiling encouragingly.

"We'll do things in the old style," Hermes announced when everyone was seated. "So eat, drink, enjoy! We will talk business once everyone is satisfied."

There was a low murmur of appreciation, and everyone tucked into the food. Odysseus looked down the table at all the gods, everybody tall and imposing, but, smiling and talking, like any feast back home. Odysseus wasn't sure what he'd been expecting from a gathering of immortal, all-powerful beings, but he definitely didn't expect to be watching Zeus butter his bread with a blunt knife, chatting to Hades, while Hades and Persephone held hands under the table like teenagers. Odysseus wished he could hear what they were saying, but they were much too far away.

So instead, he helped himself to turkey and bread, and a heaping helping of the pasta. He was a little more adventurous this time, and tried the red tomato sauce. He was starving, it felt like he hadn't eaten in a week, and everything was delicious. He barely registered when Hermes stood, moving to speak with others around the table, he was just so *hungry* all of a sudden. But not as hungry as Eurylochus. His friend had managed to put away about twice what Odysseus did, before finally sitting back in his chair, holding his stomach and smiling, eyes glazed over slightly.

"Happy?" Odysseus flopped back in his seat, and grinned at his friend. "I don't think I've seen you eat that much in ages."

"I don't know if I can go back to ship's rations after this," Eurylochus replied. "Oof, I think I might explode."

Odysseus laughed, and reached for another slice of bread.

Polites, a few chairs down, was helping Cassandra, despite her protests. He had cut her food into small pieces, and was helping get her small fingers around the fork she'd insisted on using.

"You've just got to be patient with yourself," he said quietly. "Find out your limits, and make sure you work within them. Little bites, you know?"

"Why do you get to be so much bigger than me? It's not fair."

Polites laughed. "I remember Odysseus saying something very similar to me when we were fifteen. That summer, I shot up almost a foot. Everybody was surprised, but not as much as Odysseus when I woke up and I was taller than he was for the first time in my life." He grinned at Odysseus. "Being small had its upsides though, I always had my friends to watch my back."

Odysseus grinned back at him, grateful that even with this new situation, Polites was still who he had always been, kind, patient, and strong. He watched the two for a moment longer, but then remembered his own responsibility and twisted in his seat to find Asterion, who was sitting in a brand new high chair beside Athena, already taken care of. He smiled at Odysseus, his face covered in sauce. Instead of feeling relief, though, his stomach dropped, and his mood plummeted as if off a cliff.

"I'm a terrible dad," he said to Athena, gripping the table edge with both hands. "I should have thought of him first—"

Athena put down her fork, confused, and looked back at Asterion, then at Odysseus, whose eyes were filling with tears. He'd been so distracted, his thoughts racing around his head like chariots without drivers,

"I forgot him, I got distracted and didn't even— and I keep putting us in danger—" The tears were coming now, and Odysseus couldn't stop them. "I got us into this mess. I just wanted to save everybody!" Everything came crashing down at once. Pictures of Penelope, and Telemachus, of the crew still in jail, everyone looking down at him, and all the happiness of the previous moments fled. "I just want to go ho-o-ome." The last word stretched out in a plaintive wail as Athena reached out around Hermes' chair and pulled him from his seat, and into her lap. Odysseus curled up there, and rested his head against her chest, as she put her arms around him. In the back of his mind, he remembered their fight. 'She left you,' his thoughts said.

'But she found me again...' Odysseus found himself telling the voice. 'She's right here. ' He felt her heartbeat against his ear, slow and steady. He hadn't known gods had heartbeats. In that moment, he felt that it was all going to be alright, and he let out a huge sigh.

"These are big feelings," she said softly. "You, and Cassandra, and the boys, have all been through much more than what your bodies can handle right now. Hush, little one."

It had been a long time since she'd called him 'little one.' Odysseus snuffled, and sat up, noticing his friends staring, and he self-consciously slid back into his own seat, wiping the tears away with the back of his hand. Artemis, seated next to Athena, smirked.

"Athena, you always had a problem getting too close to mortals," she said, her voice hardly carrying over the sounds of conversation from further down the table. "You know you can't keep him."

Athena went rigid. "I know that," she said.

Odysseus glanced at Eurylochus, who had heard too, but he didn't get the chance to say anything because then Hermes was standing, and banging on his glass with his butter knife.