The Collection: Short Stories, Misfits, and One-shots

Julius Amaranthus Lexus

Part 2 of the greek mythology trial.  I wish I had continued this when I was writing it early last year, but I didn't, so now I can only make guesses at what I was thinking.  I need to find some stories that have some closure for you guys, or are at least less likely to make me look like a bad guy.

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Hera remained in the council room as the other gods exited, her posture still straight and commanding.  She was the last person or god he wanted to speak to, his lineage working against everything she stood for.

"Your situation and existence are new to me, child." She eyed him with a mixture of distaste and grim satisfaction.  "You descend from my husband, but yet your father was a good example of how family and marriage work."  He was uncertain whether she was complimenting his father or considering having him killed or worse.

"Lady Hera."  She raised her hand and smoothed out her dress, her eyes remaining on him.

"You have presented the council with a truth that is more than unsettling, and have volunteered to stop it."  He watched her, his fingers unconsciously tightening on his sword.  "Even though you could die."  For once, her gaze on him was soft, almost sympathetic.

"Lord Zeus is all I have left."

"Even if death was the very thing your father tried to protect you from?"  The soft look was gone, the calculated statements back in full swing.  "Do not forget how fleeting a mortal is to gods.  Zeus honors your father's wish, but make no mistake, the pain he felt then barely remains."  Hera sighed and stood, walking over to Julius, resting her hand lightly on his shoulder.  "Do not rely on him to be your family, there will only be disappointment."  He flinched, not from her statement, but the emotion behind it.  "I will leave you with the last memory I have of Aetius Lexus."

"What?"  He broke off as a vision took hold of him, columns and plaster walls replacing the council room.

"May you find your path, child."  Hera's voice was a whisper, and then she was gone, leaving him in an unknown room.  Light splayed over the tiled floor, giving the room a bright glow.  Around the corner he could hear the sound of a muffled voice, Julius's body instinctively heading in that direction.  On the floor of a large bedroom, her body hunched over an oversized cradle, sat a woman, her back to him.  The only thing missing in the scene was the happiness.  From where he stood he could hear her words and they scared him.

"It's going to be alright, Julius."  She gently stroked the baby, never turning away from him though in the distance the sounds of screaming made clear the situation.