𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 || 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐚✔

[Final] Chapter 16: The Renunion

Indeed, Lisa had refused to shoot her arrows. People stopped falling in love with one another. There was no praise for Venus, her temples stood empty, her altars unadorned. No marriages were taking place and no new births. The world became grim and dreary in a day. Without love, all songs and laughter died. All work halted.

Farmers did not plow their fields or pick their fruits. Hunters put down their bows and chased no game. Fishermen quit sailing their boats and simply drifted listlessly on the ocean. Even the fish had sunk sullenly to the very bottom of the sea. Everyone's heart was empty and deprived of joy.

Venus woke up from her nap and looked from the Olympus. She was amazed to see that everything had changed. The goddess of love and beauty, found herself wasting in the great parching despair that came off the earth like a desert wind. All joy and favor and beauty had departed the world. All was rustic and undesirable to the eye.

There was no wedding ceremonies and no sacrifices to honor her. No camaraderie between friends, none of the love which children inspire, all was a scene of boundless squalor, of unsavory boredom in every sordid relation.

Shock and terror entered her heart. She had underestimated her daughter's threat and the power of her magical darts. If the earth kept going without love, all life would perish. And each immortal god would shrink and wither along with it.

Venus herself had noticed the change in her beauteous person. She quickly got off her couch and stood before her massive mirror. There was a single silver hair on her godhead. A single silver hair among the gold was like a poison needle plunging deep into her heart.

Even worse, this was also the grief of the other gods, who depended on love to gain their might and status.

They came to Venus one after another, asking for her intervention.

"Please, my lady, ask your daughter to shoot her arrows, or we shall be suffered gravely," they begged.

Even Jupiter, the King of Gods, had to step in with the same worries. He summoned her to him. As the goddess entered the throne room, the other deities greeted her with solemn faces. Venus was only used to praises and sweet gestures, but now she was the cause of their distress.

"Venus, my dear, you must put your hatred aside and set the world right again," Jupiter said to her. "Give what your daughter demands and stop all this nonsense. Your selfish anger shall be the death of the Olympians. I will not tolerate this family feud anymore. Do you heed me?"

Venus, at last, relented. The goddess also found that anger hurt her beauty, so she inclined her head and smiled again.

Afterward, she returned to her palace, hoping to resolve the conflict with her daughter.

There she went straight to Lisa's chamber where the sadden goddess was sobbing in her bed.

Lisa had secretly tried to help Roseanne through her obstacles, but as a god, she was not allowed to trespass the Underworld.

Now she was utterly worried regarding the fate of her beloved girl. Venus stood by the door and watched her grieving child for a long moment. Then her mother's heart softened, and she cleared her throat.

"I see that you must have your way," Venus said to her daughter. "Stop your lamentation now and tell me what is your wish."

Lisa wiped her eyes."My wife," she said in a scratchy voice. "I want my Roseanne back."

"Very well then, you shall have her," Venus spoke with a defeated sigh. Lisa looked at her mother with teary eyes. She was surprised by what she heard.

"Are you true to your words?" she asked Venus. "Then swear me an oath, mother, swear it over the river Styx, that you shall never harm Roseanne by any mean."