A God's Mercy (Apollo x OC)

Chapter 26

A/n: Hiya you dudes. I'm back with another installment for God's Mercy. I'm also coming along with some announcements y'all might wanna hear. 1, I've gotten feedback from quite a few people about the last few chapters, about which you can probably guess: Melantriche's age. And I'm going to resolve these worries here and now.
To begin with, when I was starting this story, I hadn't had any smut planned, it just sort of came along. But I realize now that the age 13 is unacceptable, no matter how accurate I want the time frame to be. So, I'm really sorry about it. Sorry if I distressed some people, somehow me being the retard I didn't listen. So with my powers as a writer, I hereby canonly denounce Melantriche's age as a young adolescent. I don't know if I even have a real age for her, maybe like, 18? 20? Or something along those lines, because she has kind of a young personality. I think I'd rather just leave it up to the audience, but no more pedophilia.
But all that besides, I'm glad that I got all your feedback. I really do want this to be the best story I can turn out, without any regrets. So I hope you can forgive me for making bad mistakes.
But that probably isn't enough to say sorry, so I'm going to be posting a different chapter that diverges from the story as an apology present. I would post it now, but it would most likely spoil the story, so you'll have to wait, my beauties. And so, for all of those who are still here, enjoy the new chapter.

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When the moon was as high as it was, one should have been asleep. Not Melantriche, though. She fidgeted in the sheets, unable to find a comfortable position. She just couldn't stop reliving the day in her mind. Over and over again she analyzed her foolish behavior, at the price of her being a laughingstock and Apollo's obvious distaste. Mortification shot through her body every time she thought of it.
The rest of their day had not been so happy. After the welcoming, she and Karana returned to work. The first thing they did was head straight back to the palace, in the little room that Melantriche and Apollo had made love. Stripping the sheets off in one swift strong movement, Karana showed her the damage done. A large red stain marred it right down the middle. Melantriche blushed furiously. Now that she was off her high, the effects of rough intercourse weren't lost on her. Even so, they assumed the arduous task of pulling off the heavy mattress and replacing it with a fresh one, scrubbing out the covers and hanging them out to dry. By the time they were finished Melantriche was soaked in sweat and feeling slightly faint. She sat on a stool as Karana showed her how to disembowel a squash for soup. At least it was a relief to finally eat something. The soup was creamy and sweet. Others had joined them for supper, 2 girls who were working in the kitchen at that time. One was young, small—even smaller than Melantriche herself—and blond. The other lanky and dark-skinned. No woman spoke, but from the corner of her eye she knew they were stealing furtive glances at her. Surely they thought her as strange as she them. Most likely, Melantriche reflected bitterly, because they'd never laid eyes on a human so air-headed before. After that, they went to another building which was filled entirely with pools of water. There was so much steam that Melantriche could barely see. "Is this where you wash laundry?" Through the clouds Karana gave her a look.

"This is where we wash ourselves."

"Oh." So they did. The fact that even slaves could bathe in a place like this made her suspect she was in Elysium. Too bad she was too low in the dumps to enjoy it. The way he looked at her... not even the warm sudsy water could sooth her spirits. Did he not like her anymore? The thought was more painful than a bad stomachache. Then the group silently parted ways, and Melantriche said goodnight to Karana outside her bedroom door.

All that in one day, unlike anything she'd ever experienced in her whole life, and she couldn't even sleep a wink. She turned on her side, a hollow sensation filling her. Maybe she'd been wrong in her assumptions. But he'd been merciful to her before, and he kissed her. A person wouldn't kiss someone if they didn't love them, right? Sex, maybe, but a kiss... no... maybe. She didn't know anymore. Nothing seemed to make sense, and it made her head hurt just thinking about it all...
She wanted to go home. Maybe the reason it was so hard was because she wanted to wake up and find it was all a dream. A bad, crazy, scary... wonderful—dream. Lyra would be in the doorway with breakfast, and then they would chat as if there weren't a care in the world. She'd spend, oh, 4 or 5 months bent over her wedding dress and then by year's end, she'd be ushered into a carriage and escorted to another mansion, with Belenis waiting for her. Funny enough, though, when she pictured his face he didn't seem nearly as handsome as he once was.
And it wouldn't be like that, she didn't think. Things rarely worked out in that sense, but even with Athens and its cramped houses and ugly men, it was where she knew she belonged. At least more so than here. All her life, she'd only had Lyra, but who here would want to be friends with her? A bungling human girl? Karana, she remembered, but oh, she didn't count. Why? ... Well, she just didn't. She probably just talked to Melantriche because no one else would listen to her bickering.
Melantriche shut her eyes tight against the pillow, not able to conjure up anything else in her mind but what would lie in store for her tomorrow.

She wasn't sure when she fell asleep, but now she was awake. Not totally awake, she felt, because it was dark and hazy in the room. Some part of her was still asleep, while the other was only vaguely aware of the sensation of long fingers stroking her face. She cracked open one blurry eye. She saw blue eyes very close to her. They were very blue, and pretty. Somehow she felt very peaceful. She licked her lips and giggled. "Deeheehee," and then she probably fell back asleep.

Bright light filtered through the shutters of the room. She blinked drowsily, finding herself entangled in her sheets. No one was here yet, though. She took her time sitting up, rubbing her face, and staring around. No one. She couldn't remember when she fell asleep, or what she dreamed.