Faery Heroes

Chapter 34: To Keep a Secret

Hermione shut her eyes wearily as she closed the library book she had been perusing. Apparently, Harry's strange brand of luck had struck again, and in their favor this time, for which she was quite thankful. She did not want to think about the consequences had they been visited with misfortune. "Harry, Luna? Could you two come over here, please?"

"What's wrong, Mione?" the pretty blonde asked.

"We've been pulling on the tiger's tail, and I'd really like to stop before it turns around and eats us," she answered cryptically. "Harry, when you first met with the Faery Queen, what names did she say she had been called before Lilith?"

"I told you that a couple of weeks ago. Astarte, Hecate, Morrighan, and Titania."

"Yes, that's what I thought you said." She held up a long roll of parchment. "I've done a little research into those names, and what I came up with is not exactly comforting."

He groaned. "Uh-oh. Okay, go ahead and tell us the bad news."

"Well, Titania is easy. That was the name she used most recently, I expect, considering that it was invented by William Shakespeare. The others are older, with a much stronger history. Hecate, for instance, was a member of the Greek pantheon."

"She doesn't think highly of herself, does she?" Luna said with a laugh. Harry smiled beside her.

"Oh, it gets better. Hecate should be near and dear to our hearts; she was the goddess of sorcery, witchcraft, healing and poisonous plants, as well as necromancy." This killed the others' mirth. "No one agrees on exactly where she came from. Theories suggest that she might have been a priestess elevated to divine status, the child of a lesser god, or even a powerful Titan who stood with the Olympians when they overthrew Kronos, the father of the gods. No matter how she started, however, her power was enough to earn the respect of Olympus despite not being of Kronos's get."

"So not a lightweight is what you're saying."

She nodded at her boyfriend's comment. "Very much not a minor figure. Next is Morrighan, the shapeshifting Celtic goddess of war and death."

Harry's eyes widened. "Oh, bloody hell."

"Literally," Luna whispered; her face and voice showed not a little worry. "And I had to brass her off."

"You're not the only one. I insulted her the first time I met her, too." He shook his head. "Still, just because she's taken the name of a… dark deity doesn't necessarily mean anything."

"We'll get back to that in a second. Astarte, the Greek name for the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, was also a war goddess, though she had ties to sexuality and fertility, as well. Appropriate considering Lilith is the mother of all fae.

"Luna, you're the only one of us who grew up hearing about their race. How old is she supposed to be?"

"Why couldn't you ask me an easy question?" the blonde griped lightly. "I doubt anyone but she and maybe some of her oldest and most powerful children would be able to answer that."

Nodding, Hermione pressed on. "Millennia wouldn't be a bad guess, then, would it?"

"Probably not. Why do you want to know?"