Basil's daughters

prologue: Sophia's birth.

"push!" The midwife said through gritted teeth as though she were the one birthing.
In compliance a loud groan echoes through the bed chamber of Basil and his wife. Daphne struggles for her breath as she pushed and held tight in her hand the sheets on the bed.
She relaxes to catch her breath, head dropping on the pillows hard enough to concuss her.

"Take care." The midwife cautioned kindly and instructed again, "push."

Daphne complies once again and cried bitterly biting her bottom lip as the sweat beads on her forehead head find their way down the side of her face. The baby began to crown.

"Push harder," the voice of the midwife came, calm and collected, and drunken with relief . She had feared that neither baby nor mother would make it.

Daphne gave it all that she had pushing until her face turned red and contorted. The wailing of the baby brings a sigh of relief and joy to the midwife and her assistant as they smile at each other and congratulate the mother.

"It's a girl, and she is precious."

Daphne says nothing, she is weary and cannot even move her head a fraction of an inch.
The mid wife swaddled the baby in a wrapper embroidered at the edges.

"Child...." Daphne's faint whisper came, almost ethereal. The midwife turns to her and asks. "You want your child?"
Daphne barely hearing the midwife, because her senses were playing her, nods in reply to what she could comprehend.
She sat up feebly with the help of the midwife's assistant and outstretch rigourously shaking hands to the midwife who hesitates to hand her the child. She gives the crying baby, being pacified with mild taps to her mother.

"My daughter, Sophia..." Daphne cooed into the wrapper as she brought it up to her face to kiss the baby, her hands give as she dropped the baby like it's weight was the heaviest thing in the world, hastily the midwife snatched the baby from her to prevent a ghastly fall.

"You are weak, rest." The assistant came close to lay her down flat on the bed. Daphne's eyes were closed and she didn't respond to the taps of the assistant. The assistant threw a sharp stare to the midwife who is still holding the child in her arms.

"She is breathless and unresponsive." She reported to the midwife.

"Then quick get water and a cloth, we must revive her."
The assistant swiveled to a corner picking up an urn and a bowl with a cloth. The midwife lays the quiet baby down and began her work to revive the woman.

Basil paced outside of the chamber in the foyer cracking his knuckles in anticipation. His head shoots up as he caught a glimpse of the midwife emerging from the room.

"Daphne, and my child." He says taking brisk strides towards the midwife. The worried look on Basil's face made her sympathetic.
"The child is fine but your wife sire....died." her last word made her head drop. She could see in his eyes the glistening tears that refused to drop, he was holding it back so as not to be seen as weak to his subject. The midwife understood.

"Sir please do not be ashamed to grieve in front of me."

He stays quiet and just stared at the midwife, until finally he speaks. "Show me the child."

He is lead to the room by the midwife, it was baked in with their body heat, he sees Daphne on the bed, lifeless. Pangs of pain beat his chest and he staggers knocking a perfume vial from a dressing table.

"Sire." The midwife calls coming to his aid but he stops her with the wave of his hand and recovers.

"Just show me the child." His voice shaking and heavy with tears. The mid wife presents the baby but he doesn't look at her for even a second. He pushed his way out of the room and out to the foyer again.

His wails could be heard a distance away, his eyes tightened to squeeze out every tear he had in his duct, pacifying himself with memories of his beloved wife.

A servant boy comes running towards him with news his thumping feet a heads up, alerting him to wipe his tears immediately.

"Master, the priest from the temple of Aphrodite is here and he seeks a meeting with you."

"Invite him to my sanctum." He ordered his voice now bright as he puts on a face devoid of any expression, the boy replied with a nod and ran off.

In Basil's sanctum.

"I am here to reveal a prophecy sent to me. Your newborn child she has an effulgent future."

Basil stands looking at his feets, in deep concentration, half oblivious of what the priest was saying.

"Keep all your concentration here, for it is important that you listen to me."

Basil looks up in breakneck speed at the priest, fighting with his mind to stay focused on the topic about to be discussed. Fascinated at the reason why the priest would leave the temple to visit him at this hour of night.

"Your daughter is to join Aphrodite's cult, She is destined for greatness, she is to offer ambrosia every last day of the month in order to seal her fate."

Basil confused raised a finger to his chin in thought. Silent. "But why?, I do not understand." He says to gain more information.

"She will one day live in the firmament among other gods and Aphrodite will be on her side."

"So you are saying that my child will become a goddess?"

"Yes, but be warned, never discuss the matter to anyone including her, it might change the balance of things."

Basil nods like a child and says. "Surely."

"I shall take my leave, for I have fulfilled my errand."

"I will have my servant escort you." He says.

His chamber is cleaned and prepared for him to sleep. On the bed where his dead wife laid he sat and thought, about the past, memories of his wife, his present, the effect of her death on his eldest and second daughter and the new born child, and the future, Sophia becoming a goddess. All this thoughts were spinning in his head like a carousel, laughing and haunting him and in rage, sadness and sundry other emotions he starts to turn things over and once again making the room need cleaning. He sits on his ivory floor weeping in the privacy of his chamber banging the floor with his fists and bitterly weeping. What the loss of a beloved does to a man.