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Kindred Spirits

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21. Kindred spirits

The rest of what Artemis said was lost to my ears when I saw Aphrodite lay her arms around Ares' neck and kiss him right on the lips.

Oh noh!

I froze, became like one of the statues in the garden.

How could I possibly compete with her, the very essence of beauty and sensuality?

But the next second Ares pushed Aphrodite away, snarling something at her I didn't hear. Then he came striding in my direction. And Aphrodite was running after.
"Ares…"
"Forget it! I'm sick of being your plaything!"
"You're not…"

Ares turned slightly:
"I'm not a dog who comes running when you call. You ended it ten years ago, remember. I was tiring you, remember saying that? Now go back to the hubby of yours, I'm sure he can make you some blingbling to hang around your neck as a consolidation price."
"Ares!" Aphrodite persisted.
"You heard him, you slut!" Artemis interrupted.  

"Just WHAT did you say, you frigid bitch," Aphrodite returned.
"I guess I'm out of here" Ariadne said and left. But not before she had squeezed me on the arm with a "See you!"
"Come dance with me, Didi, to the music of our Apollo!" Ares said and took my hands while Artemis and Aphrodite started to create quite a scene. I smiled and then I was in his arms, my body melting against his while we moved out on the floor in front of the stage where other couples were already dancing to the ethereal music.

¨*¨*¨

Later that night when we had returned to the villa and put Kalian to bed in his new room (I had thought that would be hard, but he was more than tired and fell asleep almost before his dark head hit the pillow) Ares and I were relaxing together in the large bed in the spacious room that was ours from now on. We had made love, another wonderful experience, and now my love was resting on his back, one arm beneath his head and the other around my waist. Only night vision made it possible to make out his content features, because there was no moon that night, and we had let the divine fire die in the fireplace. You tended to forget those furnaces when you were occupied by other fires.

I leaned my cheek in my right hand, touching his soft lips gently with some fingers of the left one.
"Ares?" I felt the need to ask.
"Yes, dear?"
"What about Aphrodite?"
"What about her?"
"What's her problem? She still has a - thing - for you?"

"Yes, she might have that. Or she might not. You never know with her, and that's the main problem. That's why she is so hard for any man to be with. I guess in the end she does not even know herself. And I - I don't want a life like that. I want honesty and fair play. While she - she's yours one day, the next day she's gone and you're not worthy of her lost strands of hair in the bed. Until she turns her grace towards you again, which might be the next day, the next week or the next year. Or - never. "
"So she's not…"
"You don't have to worry the slightest about her, Didi-mou. You're everything she's not. You're strong and reliable, you're intelligent and funny. You're creative between the sheets and most of all you're a gentle and magnificent soul. And the mother to Kalian - the greatest gift anyone has ever given me."

"Yet Eros is your son."
"Yes, but Aphrodite withheld him from me. I never got a chance to be a part of his upbringing. I hardly knew him until he became a teenager and came to me by himself. Then he felt to me just like any of all those apprentices I train in martial arts in the Arena I showed you earlier today. A pupil rather than a son, one of many. You know, during peacetime most war gods spend their time training children, not only in martial arts, but in all kind of physical disciplines. I learned to love the lad but I have never really felt any real kinship with him. Not as how a father is supposed to feel towards a son at least. Not like with Kalian, although I've known him less than a month. "
"Kal loves you so much!"
"As I love him."

"Psyche told me..." I began, not yet ready to leave the subject of his sister in law. "That Aphrodite had envied her her beauty."
"Yes, as crazy as it might sound, Aphrodite wants to excel over all, refusing to see that beauty can be of so many different kinds. It can be sultry lust and raw sex as with Aphrodite. It can be regal elegance as with my mother or healthy strength as with my sisters Athena and Artemis. It can be sensual cuteness as with Psyche or Ariadne, warm motherly comfort as with Demeter or fierce wildness as with Hestia. She can be a shiny pearl like Poseidon's Amphitrite, a radiant, exotic enigma as Selene, a dark mystery like Hecate or a colourful artisan, ready to surprise you at any moment, like any of the muses. Or it can be your kind."
"And what exactly is my kind."
"I don't know what to call it really, other than when I look at you I know that I have found my way home. Your eyes hold everything I ever wanted to see, your arms are welcoming and your body is warm and lush. And you have never questioned me for who I am."

"A god of war."
"Yes, someone who kills to acquire his goal. So many times have I been called a blood thirsty beast from those I had thought knew me better. So often have I seen fear rather than desire in the eyes of women. So often have I dreamt that someone would uncover me. But no one ever did - until you came along."
"Ares - perhaps because I knew you - the man, before I knew what others told about you. All right you were outright with your profession as a warrior, but I could never believe that the gentle man I had held in my arms was the monster Xena and others were talking about. "

"Yet there is more. You're my healer and my kindred spirit, and no Aphrodite, no matter how much pink flesh she flashes, can come between us. Now, sweetie, we both need our beauty sleep. I promise you, tomorrow Kal is going to come running almost before dawn pestering us about that horse."

¨*¨*¨

"You know, Ares and I were not always the best of friends" Athena admitted as we walked alongside the terrace overlooking the Aegean some 10 000 feet below. In spite of being a bit past noon it wasn't as hot as it usually is this time of year, although the sun was blazing right down from a cloudless sky, and I guess the aegis shielded us from the worst heat as well. Or perhaps it was some cold mountain air which was let trough.

I looked out over the deep blue sea while touching the marble balustrade slightly with two of my fingers, the surface felt soft and smooth beneath my fingertips. The sea looked so endless and tranquil from this altitude, glittering in the midday sun and with some bluish islands far away by the horizon. Then I turned and looked at Ares's sister. Athena wore a knee-long white peplo and a thin, semi-transparent cross between a toga and a scarf which was blowing behind her in the wind, like sails on a boat. The likewise white garment was fastened by a brooch by her shoulder and she wore elegant bracelets and a necklace of black and white pearls. Light years from the fighter in black leather who had assaulted and defeated Ares in Salenda.

"How so?" I asked the goddess of wisdom.
"Well, the first 300 years or so I saw him mostly an annoying fight picker, and he and I had quite hard to get along. He was always trying to show off by picking fights with my militia, campaigning his Spartans around the Hellas peninsula and creating civil wars, especially against my Athenians. But I had learned quite a few things about strategy and I kicked his ass most of the times, which if possible made him even madder at me."
"What made that change? What made him change?"

"Him? And me as well? Narinda, I don't know. I mean - I cannot put my finger on a particular incident. But I guess both he and I matured quite a bit. We both learned that we had nothing to gain with these endless conflicts. It benefitted no one. Not Athens, not Sparta, not Ares, not me. Then came the time when we were more or less forced to cooperate, because the Hellas Commonwealth was facing external threats. And then there couldn't be two war gods who fought against each other all the time. We had to join forces and marsh side by side against the barbarians of the north and the tribes of the east. I guess hadn't we stopped fighting internally father would have forced us to nevertheless."

"Zeus seems so gentle and level-headed." I commented.
"Trust me, he has quite a temper. And when anything threatens the Commonwealth - his creation - he'd do anything to save it. Anyhow, as we started to cooperate instead we began to see each other's benefits too - Ares understood the advantages of strategies, tactics and planning and not just rushing ahead. And I learned that it can often be a good thing to deploy those berserkers. Those madmen who know very little about fear, or chose to forget it for the adrenaline rush, and charges ahead without thinking, screwing all the odds. They can do stupid things but often very brave things too. They can take chances where a more level-headed soldier chickens out. And they can inspire others, drag them along and make fighters achieve the impossible, like beating a much larger army. Finally, if they don't get themselves killed, they are often very durable as soldiers. And they become the heroes we decorate when the war is over and the reason why we can recruit more warriors."

"His Dark Warriors - well I don't claim to know anything about war - but what I saw and understood of them was that they were very good soldiers."
"They are. Ares has an eye for good people. And when he and I were more or less pushed together, forced to cooperate, we had to start acting civilized against each other. Or it would never have worked. So we began to talk. First about day to day business like where to marsh and how to plan ahead for the next battle. About the enemy. And of all those small things that has to work in a war. Logistics, healers, weaponry et cetera. Scouts and spies' intelligence - everything. Then we started to talk war philosophy. Sitting in a camp under the moonlight, listening to the silence around you, knowing very little of what tomorrow holds - that brings people together. And we were talking about this place - Olympos - and our family and... Well just say we gave each other a fair chance for the first time in our lives. And we both took that chance as well. That hasn't really stopped us from being at each other's throats now and then, but we have learned to respect the other one at least. And that was a long way to come for two stubborn war gods."  

I laughed at that comment.
"Still you're so much more than a war goddess, Athena."
"That's true. I can't lose myself in the same thing for long. I need to try new things or I get impatient. Silly, I know but that's the way I work."
"You're not silly. To me you've always been someone I held in deep respect. And that hasn't grown any lesser because I came here and was received as an equal. All right, Olympos is not an alluring enigma anymore, but the magic is still there."

Now it was Athena's turn to laugh:
"Trust me, Narinda, this place reeks with magic. You'll stumble over it everywhere. Some people are sloppy and don't clean up after themselves, others leave enchantments behind on purpose, as a way to joke. You'll have to look out for magic trap doors or else you don't know where you'd end up. In some of the lakes perhaps. But I guess Ares warned you about it."
"What do you do about it?"
"We have some goddesses - the Graces - one of their duties is to remove old enchantments. But sometimes I guess they cannot keep up, or they simply don't find everything."

"About Ares, you're still competing? Like when I first met you."
"Yes that's a thing I guess we'll never stop doing. After all it's fun, educating and it keeps the other one alert. Ares was a bit slack there in Salenda, so near the border of Anatolia and all. Still I guess he couldn't help himself, being so crazy in love."
"I'm crazy about him too."
"Yes - he deserves that. He hasn't had it easy with Aphrodite and all that. Shallow affairs. He needed the real thing."
"How about yourself?" I asked, remembering the mortal tales about a virgin goddess which was apparently untrue.
"One day. I'll wait though. That's one benefit with immortality. You don't have to rush these things," said the goddess of wisdom.   

We descended a case of marble stairs and entered the garden below. A short walk while I pondered what Athena had said. Then she became the one to break the silence:
"I can tell you really love my brother. Narinda, even if it might get hard sometimes. When he goes off warring and you don't hear a sound of him - do not mistrust him. Ares needs trust. So very few people have ever given him that. Not even the benefit of a doubt when he starts fighting and seems to be lost in blood thirst."
"Athena" I said. "I've already been there done that with him. I had to wait six years for him to come back to me. Sometimes not convinced that I would ever see him again. And when he finally came he scared the wit out of me first. You know I've heard all those stories about Ares, god of war. And when he showed up in Darangorlad, I had no idea it was my beloved who I faced first. I thought my last second in life was pending. Mine and Kalians. You know he never told who he was until - that day. When he came."
"I think I understand. That must've been hard."

We had stopped by an intersection of two paths. Like a little 'square' with a neat fountain with a statue of a lion and marble benches. Here the flagrance of white bird cherry blooming out of season filled the air. There were also lilacs and some pink flowers I didn't know the name of.
"Belilles," Athena answered my question. "They're a bit too tender for the word outside. But Demeter made them just for the beauty and they can manage here at Olympos, where there are nymphs to take care of them."

"Athena" I changed subject, as we sat down on one of these benches. "Ares told me something strange a while back."
"What?"
"You met a god once. Odus or Onus or something. I don't remember..."
"Osiris?"
"No, not him. Well, this god tries to rape you and you use an Adamantine knife tearing out the man's eye. And Ares told me it didn't regenerate. That goes against everything I know about medicine. If you know the basic genetic structure you can grow back anything. Immortals heal themselves naturally; mortals have to have divine help. But how can anyone..."

"I remember that one. Odin. Creepy fellow." Athena wrinkled her brow and quieted for a while. I waited, sure that there would be more. For a while the only thing heard was the birds and the water in the fountain. Then Athena seemed to have finished her mindsearch and collected her emotions.  
"There's a place north of the Black Sea called Mimer." She went on. " There's an old volcano there and several hot wells. The place is spooky and reeks with sulphur, but mortals go there in masses to bath away their deceases. Works in some cases as you might well know."
"Yeah," I nodded my head.

"Anyhow the water in those wells doesn't only carry healing magics; because of the minerals in it it's a very potent scrying device as well. You can see a lot, including many possible futures, and even be able to interpret them. And there's especially one well at Mimer with an extra strong concentration of zinc and some uranium too. A well in a cave a bit up on the mountain side. I was planning to use some of that water for a certain research I needed to do. I was going to look way back in time, even before the beginning of the Titan wars. To be successful in such a venture I needed a strong medium. And to make it even better I planned to have the uranium reacting with my own ichor. Those nuclear forces make it in theory possible to go back in time even before the birth of mankind. That's why I went to Mimer and to this special well and sampled enough water for my research. I also bought an Adamantine knife to cut myself with and bleed some in the water. Instead I ended up using it in quite a different way.

I had hardly begun my work when I felt the presence of a stranger god. First I couldn't care less, I was busy doing my thing and I figured this god might enter if he liked, after all this well was a public place. Yet I got a creepy feeling upon his entrance. And when he greeted me there was something sinister and patronizing in his voice, something which gave me very uncomfortable vibes. Especially since he asked me what I was doing there by the well. Not out of curiosity, mind you, rather as if I had no right to be there. I remember looking up in a face I might have regarded as plain. Nothing really to write home about if it wasn't for his utterly annoyed expression. I decided to not let myself become affected and simply told that I was sampling water for scrying. I remember him looking at my knife with even more affect in his eyes and how I therefore tucked it away in my belt instead of drawing the blood I intended. I also decided that the best thing was to leave. The bloke was in a miserable mood and I certainly didn't need his attitude problems.

Then he asked me something very strange. He asked me if I was the Mimer, and I told the truth, that this place didn't have an assigned god or goddess. It was an unrestricted area. I told him my name and that I had come here to seek wisdom. In return he told me his name, and he told me that he had learned about this water trough a prophecy. Giving me some elaborated story while I capped my bottles of water. First I thought that he was loosening up a bit, then he said that he was familiar with our clan and that I labeled myself 'goddess of wisdom'. 'I crave wisdom' he had said. 'Can't get enough of it'.

I confessed that it was the same with me. And just as I was planning to let my guards down a bit Odin came up to me and sort of intruded upon my private sphere, and as I took a step back and tried to circle him, he grabbed my arm. 'I crave' he said, and there was something mad in his eyes, and I saw in his mind with frightening clearance that he was planning to rape me. Then it all happened very fast. He tore my dress apart and reached for my undergarment. In return I got my knife up. To make as much harm as possible in an easy way, I aimed for his eye and pierced it with the Adamantine. At that moment I was steaming with rage, and I used my powers over Adamantine to severe his surrounding cells, damaging them beyond natural regeneration."
"So it is possible. No one can heal him?"
"Perhaps a skilled healer like yourself. Or Asklepios. But apparently they don't have healers of that kind where he comes from."
  
¨*¨*¨

Not unexpectedly I found Ares down by the Arena where he was sparring with Achilles. They both looked fierce and wild, and save for the fact that their blades were mere iron the fight seemed frightening realistic. I regarded them for a while and then I guess they both decided to call it a day. Achilles and Athena were returning to their war in the west tomorrow and Achilles had some things to finish at Olympos first. Ares came up to me, drying sweat from his face and neck with a napkin.
"Kalian's not with you?" I asked after that we had greeted each other with a rather chaste kiss.
"No" Ares shook his head. "He went swimming with the rest of the kids."
"Where? In one of the lakes?"
"No, they went down to the Aegean. There are some underwater caves there the others couldn't wait to show him."

"He'll have a lot to tell tonight then I bet," I smiled. It felt so fine to be able to let him roam free with other children without having to check upon him all the time to make sure he didn't revealed his divine status, and thus blew the cover I had been keeping. Now he was among family. Other gods. And there was no reason to pretend anymore.

"By the way Inandon'll be here the day after tomorrow." Ares told. "Your old man! Now you'll have to excuse me, I need to go wash myself, I stink!"
"Oh you don't, honey!" I said but Ares only grinned, sniffed toward his right armpit and made a face. Then he was off in a whiff. And I was left with my ponderings. Inandon - how would he receive me? A stranger daughter. And a grandson.
Army Postal Service chapter 21. Kindred spirits
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