A Hall of Mirrors

A Glimmer of Friendship

Apollo had never heard such a voice like Kathréftis’ and as a god who loved music and was its patron, he owed it to her talents to make her believe in them. Honestly, he thinks he'd been bewitched. Her voice was that enchanting.

He watched her now as she marveled at the spacious white stone hallway and the exquisite masterpieces that hung along the walls. Apollo prided his patron school for being truly the home of the musically and artistically gifted. All the paintings were works by students who have either graduated or were still studying here. Music of some variety can be heard floating down to them in a faint echo. Their feet clicked quietly on the polished floor of mosaic tiles they walked on, Apollo casually leading her to the narrow but tall silver doors at the end of the corridor.

"This place is amazing," she muttered mostly to herself as she admired the paintings on the ceiling.

Apollo kept his mouth shut, his hands shoved in his pockets as he strolled behind Kath, but his steps faltered when those striking silver orbs pinned him with wide-eyed excitement. "Do all schools look like this one?" she asked with a quiver in her voice. "Or does it depend on what kind of school it is? I can't imagine Ares' Academy to be filled with such beautiful art, or music for that matter.”

He could not help the snort that came out of him at the mention of the Academy for Soldiers, the elite school that taught warfare and was basically like a training camp. Although there was art in its main building, they were too often filled with either death, gore, or blood enough to make any person go almost insane with so much red in a picture.

“The Camp has art,” he told Kath, “but none as peaceful or as diverse as the ones you would see here. Come, I have someone for you to meet.”

She glanced at him with a sly curve in the corner of those sinful lips. “Another one of the Muses?”

“No.” Apollo grinned. “Someone who values truth above anything else. She will tell you what Euterpe and her audience—and of course, I—know.”

Confusion was a cute look on her pretty face, Apollo thought, but he banished it from his mind as soon as it crossed him. Gods, he can’t keep thinking of her as beautiful in an emotional way if he was to survive her. He already made up his mind, that whatever he was feeling towards the young goddess was probably just his subconscious reacting to what he knows would never happen. That because it was already pre-programmed in his head that Kath was off-limits, his brain—or another part of his body if he was being honest—was fixating on her.

Apollo was convinced he only needed to get her out of his system by finally getting Trinity to go out with him. He would have to work his moves fast because there would be no way he will not be getting laid before accompanying Kath on her next outing.

The silver doors automatically opened to reveal the Headmaster’s office. It was an even bigger room filled with more art than the hallway they just passed through. The back window gave an uninhibited view of the sprawling Valley below them and backlit against it was a blonde, pixie-haired, green-eyed woman in her mid-thirties who stood behind a large mahogany desk.

Her business attire consisted of a gray pencil-cut skirt to her knees and a billowy blouse tucked inside of her skirt, a thin black ribbon the only accent to highlight her long neck.

“Good afternoon, Lord Apollo,” the woman rounded the desk and curtsied. “Lady Kath.”

Apollo glanced slyly at Kath and at the cheeks that he knew would blush at any kind of acknowledgment of the title she held. It appeared on cue, and Apollo hid his grin and instead turning to the Headmaster of his school.

“Hello, Aletheia, how are things?”

Apollo kissed both her cheeks and smiled as Aletheia embraced Kath warmly. He perched on one of the brown leather armchairs in the room and watched Kath do the same. Aletheia grinned.

“We’re almost done with the preparations for the Autumn recitals. They’re coming together really well.” She popped back onto her chair behind her desk. “What can I do for you?”

Aletheia eyed Kath but the latter merely shrugged in response. Both ladies’ eyes swiveled to him. “We need your honest opinion,” he said.

She grinned brightly, lighting up her face. “Well, you came to the right place! There is no one better to give an honest opinion than the goddess of truth herself.”

Apollo felt Kath’s eyes flicker over to him but if he turned to her, he knew he would laugh or do something stupid she might interpret as something either completely wrong or insanely even more stupid. So he resolutely put his face forward and simply looked at the other goddess before him.

“I want you to tell her what you think about her singing,” Apollo explained.

This time Apollo caught the frown on Kath’s face. “Apollo,” she said his name in that chastising tone that oddly made him shiver but not in fear. “I’m sure the Lady Aletheia has better things to do.”

Kind green eyes crinkled at her. “Oh, I’d love to hear you sing, Kath! And my work was actually done for the day. I was just surfing the web when you came in.”

Apollo grinned widely at Kath. “Hear that? Now come on, Kath. The faster you get it over with, the faster we can check out the other classes going on.”

That put a spark in Kath’s eyes and he couldn’t help the urge to get it to appear again. She only hesitated for a few seconds before she sat up a little straighter and began to sing. Like the first time, Apollo used every bit of practice in patience he had mastered over his existence to keep his face neutral and schooled, so she would not see exactly how much he was blown away by her talent.

Her voice and technique made his own heart sing at how masterfully skillful she was. It was ridiculous how enamored he was by a beautifully sung nursery song but there was simply nothing he could do but be hung up about it.

She finished the short song, blushing at the end like she did the first time. He made himself turn his head to Aletheia and he was surprised to find her looking so critical.

“You want me to give you my honest opinion?” she asked after a while. Aletheia steepled her fingers as Kath visibly prepared herself. “Okay, here it is: You, Kath, have a gods-given gift and should enroll right here and right now.”

Apollo’s chest puffed with pride and he grinned at Kath who had a big smile of relief on her face. She stopped fidgeting with her hair immediately and sighed.

“Oh, thank you so much. I’m so flattered,” Kath said.

Aletheia lifted a brow. “But?”

Kath blushed again. “But I think I would prefer to explore the rest of the Valley before I decide to do anything else.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “That’s wise. But know that the offer still stands. Oh, and that you are invited to the Autumn recitals. Okay? Just so you get a feel of what we do around here in the School of Art and Music. I’m sure Apollo would be more than okay in taking you.”

Apollo smirked at Kath, unable to help the quip that next came out his mouth. “Let’s pin that as date number two?”

Silver eyes rolled at him “You wish.” Then she stood and offered a hand to Aletheia. “I guess that’s all we wanted to ask from you. Thank you so much for indulging us. If it is okay, we’ll sit in a few classes.”

She bypassed the hand and gave Kath a hug. “Oh, go ahead! Knock yourself out.”

They waved goodbye, Apollo chivalrously opening the silver doors for Kath on their way out. Kath grinned at Apollo when they got back to the spiral staircase to go to the upper-level classrooms.

“Let me get this straight:” She leaned on the railing, a couple of steps above him so they were practically eye-level now. “You did not think that I would trust you were being honest if you told me I had a good voice. So, you took me to see the goddess of truth, which happens to be the Headmistress of the school you are the patron of by the way, just so I would believe that I could sing?”

Apollo shrugged, rubbing his nape with a hand. “Yeah. I mean, it’s not like we’re friends anyway and—”

“I think that we can call ourselves ‘friends’ after today, Apollo.”

He blinked at her. “Really? I thought you didn’t like me.”

Kath laughed, the sound of it echoing gloriously in the building. “I thought you didn’t like me!”

Apollo shook his head, chuckling at the ridiculousness of their situation. He looked at her now. Perhaps this was an option he didn’t see before for this exact reason. Maybe he could stop thinking of Kath in a very inappropriate way if he got it into his head that they were only friends. He could do that, right? And Kath wasn’t so bad. Apollo actually enjoyed her company today. It was certainly better and refreshing than hanging out with anyone from his own circle of friends.

Kath was kind and adventurous and Apollo did not mind in the slightest about showing her around the Valley. Actually, it was an honor to be able to take a new goddess out to explore her world for the first time, mostly because it had not been done before. He had a front-row seat to the maiden voyage of Kath and he liked it.

But he wasn’t about to say that now. No, that would be too weird. And he wanted to be friends with the girl. Perhaps he’ll confide in another century.

“In my defense, I really took a beating from your hair,” Apollo replied instead of the turmoil of thoughts simmering in his head. “I healed myself, as you so suggested, so you wouldn’t see a fleck of a bruise even if you wanted to.”

“Oh, boo-hoo. Now are we going to crash a few classes or not?” she challenged.

Apollo grinned at gestured for her to take to proceed up the stairs, all the while thinking to himself that Kath was now his friend, and she was one who might not appreciate him ogling her ass like an imbecile if he was caught.