God of Death and Love

Motion I

To be clear, there are many things that I don't understand about humanity. But the one thing that confuses me the most, the one that actively keeps me up at night, is its obsession with finding its own origin, its purpose.  

Frankly, its obsession with us. 

For so very long, I've had to stand idly by, as beings - no more significant than the ants they happily crush - beg us for the answers, for guidance. 

Like we know. 

Origin and meaning are rather a taboo subject for us deities - it's true that there are a few who were there when the world was created - and it's certainly true that we can control the landscape so many call home, but in reality? We're a little lost too. After millennia and millennia of the same, our memories have begun to erode too, the soft waves of time tearing away all that has been. It's all a little hazy now, only we don't have shrines and monuments to cry at, concepts of people to shift the blame too - we only have ourselves. There's always a tier above to look to, a force to scream and cry at - but our focus has always been down below. 

That's why we present in human forms, despite the hindrance of our magic, that's why we simulate seasons and change our clothing in accordance, and that is why I find myself - on the day everything changes forever - sat in a bar, mildly intoxicated. (Much to the dismay of many Gods, alcohol has no effect on us - but we soon found our own poison.) I may think that humanity is overrated, but it turns out that they were dead on about drinking away your problems. 

Truth be told, I've never been one for drinking, never been one for losing control. The dim fog that descended on my senses and clouded my judgement never relaxed me, it sent me into an unbridled panic. Until this very moment, every minute of every day was spent planning and planning so there was no way anything could ever go wrong - I saw what happened to the Gods who got comfortable, so I worked, and I worked, until my skin wore thin and my bones broke. But where did that get me? Exiled from my society, from my kind, until I can end the life of a human being. So as I threw my head back to take my umpteenth shot of the night, I let the fog cloud every thought and every judgement that I'd ever made - and I prayed that for a few seconds, I would just be allowed to escape, to rest, to sleep. If only for a moment.  

My spin in the black hole of self-pity was quickly terminated when a pair of, exceptionally forceful, hands crashed down onto my shoulders, forcing a surprised hiccup out of my exceptionally exhausted body (another thing - human bodies are disgusting). The sparkling head of Athena suddenly forced itself into my vision, far too quickly - her literal glowing features making my head spin. I screwed my eyes shut, and tried to mumble out some scorn but, not for the first time today, found my mouth to be unresponsive. 

"Why...Why are you-" After a truly exhaustive effort, this is all I manage to mumble out, so I silently curse my tongue for being such a traitor. 

"Why am I here? Anubis called, said you'd probably need a friend or two - and this is the only bar I have ever seen you in", her tone is soothing, and I inch my eyes open to look her in the eye, but it feels like I'm looking directly into the sun - so I turn away. 

"Come on, you need to sober up - just a little". I stick out my bottom lip at her, much like a petulant toddler. 

"Fine, I'll do it for you, if you're going to be like that" - she gently rests her palm against my forehead and I register a faint sucking sensation before I note that the crushing weight on my skull has slightly lifted, but the faint disconnection of my limbs and the slight feeling of invincibility remain. 

"Thanks, guess I needed that" I chuckle, though now I can stare directly into her face I can see that it's etched with so much concern it takes everything in me not to wince in pain. 

"It's not an issue darling, but don't thank me yet - I've brought back up", the stony grey exterior of her face cracks into a wide grin at this, and I faintly register the sight of two glowing faces approaching me, from the corner of my eye. 

Freyja, the Norse god of love, beauty and fertility - positively floated to where we were seated, emitting a glowing white halo around her. I've known Freyja for as long as I can remember - yet it's impossible not to be rendered speechless every time I see her; for she was the epitome of beauty. She was that kind of beauty too, where it was totally indescribable - this comes mostly from the fact that Freyja (or her Greek form, Aphrodite) took the form of what it was that the viewer found beautiful, she was different to everyone who had the fortune to look upon her. She was every type of beauty wrapped into one, a kaleidoscope of love and joy and sheer perfection. Yet for me, she's always been a bit of a blank. I mean literally. Her features all fuzz into one shining blur, and I only know that she's breathtakingly beautiful - I can't say I've experienced it. When the stares of every deity in the establishment slowly turn away, and the brightness of Freyja's visage softly dims, I notice Bast stood in her shadow. 

"I've asked you on many an occasion to not walk in front of me like that", a distinctly feline voice purrs, "It's extremely underwhelming for people when they notice me."

Bast, is the Goddess of cats in the Egyptian mythologies, as well as protection, and consequently took a feline head. It can be rather jarring in a world of humanoid creatures - but it does have a strange normalcy to it - to the extent when you almost forget that those types of heads aren't normally found on those types of bodies. 

"Tone down the self-deprecation there, lady" Freyja began "Your head looks way better on you than a cow does on me when I'm Hathor, I rejoice every day about my appearance shifting magic"

"Yeah, you, me and everybody else," Athena mumbled into her drink. 

I feel a slight laugh bubble up in the throat - making me feel altogether a little lighter - that is, until Athena turns her attention to me. 

"But - we're getting off-topic, we are here for one reason alone - Hecate, you got anything to say on this?"

Suddenly I feel the ice-cold stares of three of the most powerful Goddesses out there, I try to swallow, but my throat feels like sandpaper - and my drink is doing nothing to help. 

"Well..." I begin.  

-----------------------------------------------Author's Note--------------------------------------------------------------

Hey! Thanks for reading to this point! This was the hardest chapter to write so far but I'm really excited to see feedback (positve+negative) so please remember to comment and vote :)

also! I know it says Tuesdays and Fridays for uploads but I'm trying to get the outlook of the story fleshed out in a shorter time span so we can get to the romance.