Divine Destiny: Serendipity Saga Book Two

Prologue

The battlefield unfolded before me as I entered it, heroes from both sides falling to swords and spears. I traveled lazily to the ground, enveloped in lightning that carried me to the ground. Athena, Hera, and Zeus led the charge, watching carefully from their positions behind the lines of our military forces.

"We are being pushed back," Zeus announced, watching carelessly as the slaughter continued before us. He lounged across a chaise lounge that had been supplied by some of the soldiers, lazily looking over battlefield maps.

Zeus was an imposing figure. He radiated sexuality and command and I most often chose not to associate with him. He appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties, sporting a long dark, well-kept beard and piercing blue-white eyes similar to my own. He carried a scepter with him which he had leaned against the chaise lounge now. I knew he favored plating the thing in lightning bolts as he strode about. I had always thought it quite pompous but he greatly enjoyed that humans saw us as gods.

"It is...troubling," Athena replied. She leaned over the map, far more interested in what information it contained.

Athena was studious and brave but lovely. She had dark hair pulled into a serious bun at the base of her neck. She only appeared to be in her mid-twenties but her eyes held the expression of someone far more wisened. She too was long and lean, muscles lining her frame.

"What is our course?" chimed Hera, mother of the gods. She was far more matronly than Athena. She wore softer edges, more refined, more gentle. She didn't appear to be much older than Athena but she wore her age much more plainly on her countenance.

They bickered for a moment, tossing battlefield strategy back and forth at each other like physical blows. It made my headache. I hadn't favored this war. If I had to choose, I would support my people but I had chosen neither to meddle in the affairs of mortals nor to advance on the Trojan people. My presence had simply become a balm to the warring gods, a desperate plea to not annihilate entire populations in the midst of their quarreling.

The battlefield was a place that regularly made my skin crawl. I, unfortunately, thrived in, touched with a gift that had elevated me to my position. I could soothe those so thoroughly troubled souls.

"What are your thoughts, Harmonia?" Athena asked suddenly. I snapped my gaze to her, away from the blood and death washing the field before us. I gave her a stony look. Harmonia was a name given to me by the people. I preferred Sage, the name I had been born with that already seemed to suit my position.

"I think this is all careless bloodshed," I replied, crossing my arms over my bosom. I wore a long flowing dress. It was pale blue, nearly white and I was dismayed to see that the bottom of the gown had already been tattered and dirtied even on this dais.

Athena glared back at me, her eyes narrowed. When I didn't react to her, she finally rolled her eyes and turned back to Hera and Zeus. "Care to deliver a warning?" She asked and I knew she was watching me for a response.

Zeus leaned forward, abandoning his lazy pose, his face eager, his eyes already glowing.

I stood, approaching Athena and stepping past Zeus. "I think I'll handle any warnings being cast," I told her, my eyes passing again over the helpless troops tangled in fighting with the Trojans. My gaze fell onto a nearly identical dais I could just barely spot from across the battlefield.

Zeus looked crestfallen, if not a little angry. Much to his dismay, he and I shared a similar power. Many of his supposed acts of godhood were actually my own though I let the mistakes go uncorrected. He enjoyed the limelight more than myself.

Athena glanced at Hera whose composure was impossible to penetrate. I'd never even seen the woman flinch. "Soldiers or..." she left the words hanging in the air, gesturing to the opposing dais.

A microscopic smile spread across Hera's lips as she simply nodded her response. She watched the raised dais with scrutiny.

And moments like these were exactly why I allowed Zeus to accept some of my inevitable worship. Don't get me wrong, Zeus was good but he liked...a boring approach.

I gathered energy within me, pulling from the very lifeforce of those around me. I knew my eyes would glow, washing this bloody moonlit field with a blue-white light. I pulled and pulled until I felt explosive with the energy.

And then I let it go.

It raced away from me as an electric blue bolt, spearing over the heads of the armies and slamming into the dais opposite us. In a ripple of skittering sparks, all fell quiet. The edges of the dais had caught flame, hungry waves of it rising in a circle.

And in its center, spiraling forward clothed in smoke were four powerful gods, standing and staring furiously back upon us.

The first in the line was Poseidon. He was tall, his chest broad, and his body lined with muscle. He wore only a garment stretch across his hips and swooping down to his knees. He sported a neatly trimmed dark beard. He had deep aqua blue eyes. And right now, he appeared to be a touch singed.

Beside him stood a small woman. She had pale skin, dark hair, and glowing violet eyes. The bottom of her dress was on fire but she barely even seemed to notice. She had a twisted expression on her face, somewhere between joy and fury. It gave her a distorted, dark look. She stared into me with that look of gleeful rage, my polar opposite, my counter, goddess of chaos, Eris.

Next in line was Ares the great and powerful. He was admittedly ripped and had a full head a coarse, dark hair. He wore a goatee and a helmet now. It had been a while since I'd encountered him. I was surprised that he hadn't changed a bit in the last several centuries. He had glowing golden eyes piercing his helm.

After him was the goddess of love herself.

Aphrodite glared daggers at me as she raked her fingers through her hair, trying to douse a fire that had begun there. She was a beauty. It was no wonder the humans had chosen her to be their goddess of love. She was tall and lean, lithe athletic muscle along her frame. She had long, golden locks of hair, a pert little nose, big amber eyes, and the face of an angel. And right now, I was honored to be under that glare...

"Really, mother?!" I shrieked, shaking my head and pushing out the powerful magick. Sparks of electricity danced across my skin.

Aphrodite's lips twitched up in a smirk.

Nope.

I built the energy farther, shoving it into my palms, then steadily out and away from me. I lifted off the ground and was carried into the sky on my magick alone.