Scattered

21

Scattered Azure

Keres silently observed her for a minute; almost gauging the situation before he took an action. She warily watched as he got up and moved towards the wine bottle immersed in ice to pour out another glass expertly. With a filled glass in his hands, he moved to the opened curtains and shut them with a flick of his wrist. He gently moved towards Olivia's alarmed self and noiselessly placed the full wineglass before her.

'You do remember the time when you asked me who Typhon was, do you not?'

'Yeah. You told me that he was a distant relative of yours.'

Olivia answered him as she watched him move towards the bar counter and pick out a crystal decanter to pour out a brown liquid into the glass for him. He took a deep drag and sighed contently.

'Precisely. Gaia, the Goddess of earth and life is my mother's sister. Typhon is her offspring she produced to get revenge against Zeus for overthrowing the Titans by killing her son, Cronus. So in human terms, he is my cousin. He had tried to extract revenge by nearly killing off Zeus hundreds of years ago but Zeus managed to escape by taking the help of his son Hermes and Typhon was eventually thrown into the Tartarus. You do know what Tartarus is, do you?'

'Isn't the Hell?'

'Yes, it is.'

There was a beat of stillness as he took another drag.

'But isn't Zeus Gaia's grandson? Why would you make someone to kill your grandkid if he killed your son? Isn't that a little extreme?'

Keres glanced briefly in her direction before moving his eyes back on the counter where his drink sat.

'The world of Gods is quite different from the mortal realm that you are used to. Gods do not take the relationships they share into much consideration. Power is all what matters and bloodline only serves to show the status of a God, nothing more. It is the same reason why inbreeding is quite common in the realm of Gods.'

'Okay, cool. Noted.' Olivia nodded hesitantly as she took another sip of the new glass of wine. 'So what is Jackson Shaw got to do here? I mean, he is just a clueless human. What did he do to get involved in the fight between Gods?'

'Jackson Shaw doesn't come into the picture anytime soon.'

'Okay then. Go ahead.'

Olivia replied with sarcasm in her tone. It was then she realized that she was not talking to a human like her but a God who is capable of taking her life on the spot in the most painful way possible.

'So Typhon was imprisoned in Tartarus for centuries.' He continued, seemingly not noticing her tone. 'That ended there and Zeus was hailed as a hero for his fight against the monster that was Typhon. But in reality, there was another figure who had helped Zeus to use Apollo wisely in order to gain an upper hand against Typhon. She was Themis, the Goddess of Law and Justice. She was a Titaness who had been Zeus' consort long back but continued to serve as his advisor when he married Hera. She was the actual reason why Gods remained in the power; not only when Typhon attacked, but also when the Titanomachy War happened she had sided with the Gods. Centuries passed since that event. But one fine morning almost fifty years ago, the Titaness vanished from the palace of Olympus.'