Smoke & Mirrors

Childhood

Kathréftis, Goddess of Reflections, had always thought that there was something humbling about getting to live forever. To find that empires might rise and fall, civilizations may come and go, but you will survive everyone and everything no matter what because you were just that hard to kill.

Recently, however, Kath had stumbled onto a realization that it wasn’t because gods and immortals like her were invincible. While it certainly seemed so, the Unknown had done a great job in wiping that misconception away with a single, jeweled dagger. Even mortals now knew that their gods weren’t invincible, only less fragile in a physical capacity.

But she was coming into a suspicion that while physically, it would be near impossible to overpower a deity, emotions were a different subject altogether. That perhaps it was not just her that simply felt too much all the time.

Maybe it was why a lot of the gods she knew were hotheads and always ultra jealous. Like Zeus and Hera.

The thought made her smirk. While the rest of the Olympians had been busy cleaning up the messes made by the Unknown’s followers, Hera had hauled her husband off to an umpteenth honeymoon in the Bahamas. How that worked when Zeus’ man-parts had been chopped off by his beloved wife, Kath didn’t know, but their absence meant that their palace home had been closed the entire time they had been away.

From the window of the highest turret of Olympus, Kath looked towards the rising sun chariot that began to bathe the Valley in the golden light of the morning. She never thought she would be able to step foot again in Zeus’ palace after everything that has happened, but here she was, back in her old room, several brown boxes already filled with her possessions with the intent of moving them to Hades’ massive room back in the Underworld.

She had decided not to wait for the meeting that would decide if her marriage to Hades would happen to make her moving-in official. It was as much a fu*ck-you-very-much to Zeus, his wife, and whoever else that wanted to oppose her happiness, but she couldn’t seem to tear herself away from the only view of the outside world that she had for a hundred years.

It told her how badly she had been treated as a child.

Now that she had seen and experienced life outside the palace walls, Kath couldn’t help but be grateful she did not have to come back and live here. She was incredibly lucky that she had a home with Hades now, and that she would always have one as well with Aphrodite.

A faded, sharp scent registered in Kath’s mind and she quickly turned to the open door. There was only one person with the scent that faintly smelled of lightning hitting grass— a scent that accompanied the fresh wind and heavy clouds.

Not long, Zeus, the King of the Gods, rounded the corner and stopped just outside her childhood room. He was dressed in the usual khaki trousers and a soft yellow button-down with the sleeves rolled up to his elbow. His salt and pepper hair and beard were longer than usual, but Kath must have just caught him at a time when he was just about due for his regular grooming.

Or so Hermes had told her. Another discovery she had stumbled upon was that, when it came to gossip, Hermes rarely lied.

“Lord Zeus,” she murmured, curtsying as she was taught to do ever since she was young despite feelings of intense dislike. When she looked up, she was mildly irked to find no malice or contempt on his face. Just a small, calm smile. “You look well.”

“For a castrated god?” He chuckled as Kath’s nose wrinkled involuntarily at the reminder. “I suppose so.” Zeus stepped into her old room as he gave it a once-over. "You had such a small room. I bet Hades' quarters for you defeats this by leaps and bounds."

She wasn’t stupid. Kath knew the real meaning lay behind his words: You're leaving because he's rich.

Unbothered by her disapproving frown, Zeus proceeded to ask, “How is my brother?”

Kath shrugged, snapping the lid over one of the boxes. “He’s good. Busy working with Hecate and Athena to de-spell the artifacts once and for all.” She glanced at him and thought it over before saying, “You should visit him.”

Zeus scoffed in a way that made her stiffen. “Hades would never allow me to step foot into his domain willingly.”

“Have you ever asked?” He gave her a look and she added, “For the right reasons?”

Piercing blue eyes that most of his offspring inherited lanced straight through Kath’s heart. In a blink, gone was the almighty god who had every immortal under the rule of his thumb. There was none of the usual self-assured haughtiness that she hated. None of the avuncular twinkle that he used to give Kath that somehow magically charmed her to submission before. And it struck her just how lonely Zeus must truly be.

"You, darling girl," he murmured melancholically and without offense, “will never begin to understand even just a sliver of the long and complicated history I share with all my siblings, least of all my brothers.”

“Is it?” she asked. “Is it really complicated, or just made messy by a thousand different situations that you could have avoided if you were just even slightly decent as a person?"

Zeus smirked. “Why can’t it be both?”

She sighed, pulling out her cellphone to text Eros and tell him that she was ready for him to pick up. Kath had gotten better at living with technology. It had taken her a few weeks, but she ultimately found it incredibly helpful in communication and keeping up with the news. Iris and Hermes did a great job with it, really.

“I’m leaving now,” she said to Zeus, watching his reaction as he stared out the window. “Thank you for allowing me to live for as long as I did in your home.”

The specificity of her thankfulness did not escape his shrewd mind. Still, Zeus showed no ounce of offense or disappointment on his face, merely the same sadness that made his usually bright eyes bleak. Kath bent down to pick up a box, but for some reason, hesitated by the door. It seemed wrong not to ask him what was wrong— not when a lot of things were actually wrong in his life.

Yet, at the same time, she couldn’t find it in her heart to even raise a hand to comfort him. It could not erase the fact that he had kept her secluded from the outside world for a hundred years, that she was having trouble making plans for a wedding that she was not even sure would happen until his Council convened.

So, yes. Perhaps she might be the wrong person to comfort the almighty Zeus for these particular reasons.

Sensing Eros already nearby, Kath made herself turn away from the lonely god and went to leave behind her childhood forever.