A Wayward Arrow

Chapter Eleven: Aphrodite and the First Trial

By the time Psyche made it to the temple of Aphrodite, she was exhausted. It had taken her days to reach the temple, but now that she was here she knew she had to call upon the goddess of beauty and hope that she would listen to her pleas to see Eros. As she came upon the temple, it towered before her with a grand statue of the goddess. Psyche looked over the statue. Wondering how so many people could compare her to the lovely woman depicted in stone, but she didn't linger there. She had much to do and felt her time was running short.

As she came upon the alter she'd light a few of the candles and the incense and threw herself down onto her knees before the alter. She began to pray. Desperately over and over for the goddess to come forward and hear her pleas of desperation for an audience with the goddess. Every desperate word was nearly cried out in her hushed whispered tone that barely echoed like a quiet mouse along the pillars of the goddess's temple.

"Please, Beloved Aphrodite. Hear my prayer and come to me. I desperately seek your aid."

She would pray like this for hours but no one would come. It was as if her prayer was falling on deaf ears and that no one was hearing her pleas. No gods answered, Aphrodite did not show up. She kept praying. Each plea was more desperate than the last until she was crying. Her tears streaming down her face and dripping to the marbled floor below her as she lowered down to prostration. Eventually, in her exhaustion, she would fall asleep and her praying stopped.

She was woken harshly by a jab of a foot into her arm which drew her upright into a seated position upon her knees. There was a woman standing before her. Beautiful and powerful in her stance as she stood before her with one hand upon her tilted hip as she looked down upon Psyche with a bit of a sneer. As if the very sight of the girl disgusted her more than anything else in this world.

"My temple isn't a place to sleep, girl, for this is not a place of charity. I'm sure there's plenty of poor houses that you could go if you're looking for a respite."

"Oh... mighty Goddess, I-" Psyche threw herself down into her bow, prostrating herself once again before the goddess, "I did not mean to fall asleep, I am just so tired from my travels. Please forgive me."

"You were quite loud for hours. Crying in my temple, what is it?"

"I am Psyche-"

"I know exactly who you are and what you did to Eros. You think I don't know why you came here? You wish to speak to my son, and I tell you that will not be happening. I will not allow you to see him and he doesn't want to see you. Your entire marriage was a sham from the beginning and now you're back on the mortal realm. You should just forget about whatever transpired between the two of you and leave him alone."

"But I can't, please. I am pregnant with his child."

This very confession drew a hard look upon the face of Aphrodite, who drew a step back from the woman on the ground before her. Pregnant? There was a long sigh from her. One that seemed to be of a long thought that she didn't want to finish. If she was pregnant, then the child was half god and Zeus would not be happy about it.

"It would be best if you got rid of the child, then. This world is not meant for halflings. Never truly welcomed to Olympus and never fully welcomed amongst men as equal. The child you bare will have an ill-fated life. Get rid of it as soon as you can to save it the trouble of finding out how cruel the world really is to beings such as them."

"No, how could you say such things? No, I can't. This child could be a hero of the people. This child could be something great. It is not up to me to decide whether they live or die solely because of being half-god. Please, I need to speak to Eros. You must let me speak to him. I will do anything. I will become your servant if it means I can enter your house and have such a chance."

Aphrodite thought long again over what Psyche was telling her. To be a servant. The goddess looked over Psyche from head to toe in her contemplation. This would keep her under her watchful gaze but would keep this ill-conceived child also just as close to her. Aphrodite reached out her hand towards Psyche and when the girl took it, She'd yank her forward and up onto her feet. Pulling her out of the temple and into the house of Aphrodite.

"So be it. I won't allow you to see my son unless you can prove to me to be a good servant. For now, I am done looking at you. My handmaidens will take over from here. I think they will know exactly what to do with you to make sure you're as compliant as a servant of my house should be."

With a snap of her fingers, two women appeared. They were older and haggard and, as Aphrodite called them by name: Worry and Sorrow, they would immediately take hold of Psyche. Dragging her away from the goddess and off into the back rooms where they would begin their work. They stripped her clothes from her back and whipped and flogged her well. The torture went on for hours.

Worry and Sorrow seemed to be enjoying their torture of Psyche. Thoroughly dragging her through the proverbial coals, as it were. Taunting her about how she would never see Eros again and she would forever be in the hands of Aphrodite and her two handmaidens. After all, why would Eros, the god of lust and love, want to be with her when she betrayed him in such a way as to grievously injure him?

Eventually, they'd drag her into the kitchen. Making her start to clean up the pans and dishes from the morning. As Psyche worked, she could hear Worry and Sorrow continue their tirade from just outside the door. Continuing to try and tear her morale down so that she would give up and ask to go back to the mortal realm, but they kept telling her she would never be able to go back now. That she was forever in debt to Aphrodite as a servant in her home.

Eventually, Aphrodite came down to check on Psyche. Seeing that, despite the torture and the constant abuse by her handmaidens, that Psyche was still working, she'd huff in response. Looking around the kitchen for something for her to do. Something that would seem impossible to make her quit so that she would ask to return to the mortals. Upon spotting a barrel mixed of barley, wheat, poppy seeds, chickpeas, and beans, she tossed it over. Letting it spill across the kitchen floor.

"Oops." The goddess spoke, looking at her nails as the mess ended up spilling all across the floor. "Psyche! Pick up every last piece of this mess. I want it sorted into piles and I want it done by dawn."

Psyche looked at the mess before her and then at the goddess. There was so much that it seemed impossible, but Psyche didn't dare tell the goddess as such, instead she kept her mouth shut and made her way onto the ground and instantly began to sort the grains.

"That's right. You like picking up wheat, don't you? That's what you did for Demeter, wasn't it when she told you to come to me?" Aphrodite laughed, "I would love to stay and chat, but there's a legitimate wedding I must attend. Remember, all of this sorted by dawn."

With that, she left. Leaving Psyche alone with the mess. Alone, Psyche stared at the piles and she felt defeated. There was so much there and it was already evening. It would take her days to do this work, not mere hours. She felt the hot sting of her tears as she tried to work faster. She couldn't stop. Even though she would fail, she knew that she would have to make it up to Aphrodite in some way so that she could eventually see Eros.

It was well into the night and Psyche hadn't made any more of a dent in the mess than when Aphrodite left, but the goddess would return and check up on her. Drunk from the wedding and laughing at the slow progress that she had made. Psyche could smell the feast radiating from a plate the goddess carried. All sorts of smoked meats and foods which she handed off to Worry and Sorrow for their job well done and when she looked at Psyche, she'd toss some crumbs of stale bread her way, letting it land on the floor.

"I don't think you'll be getting any of that work done by morning, what do you think, dear Psyche?" The goddess would taunt her before leaving her alone with her work.

Dawn was approaching in a few hours and Psyche was beginning to feel hopeless. She was desperately trying to move as fast as she could. Unaware that there was a pair of eyes watching her from the corner of the kitchen, snacking on the crumbs of the stale bread that Psyche didn't even touch or bother with. The ant that feasted upon the crumbs took pity upon poor Psyche and ran as fast as it could with crumb in hand to it's nest and called forth all its brethren to come and help.

Before Psyche's eyes, hundreds of little ants began to swarm the kitchen floor, causing her to jump up onto a chair and as those ants began to move, they took up all the little pieces of barley, wheat, poppy seeds, chickpeas and beans and began to move them into little piles. When she realized what the ants were doing, she immediately thanked them and began to help them. As the task was completed, the ants would take the little crumbs of bread that had been tossed to Psyche and made their exit.

Just as dawn approached and the first strands of light casted down and filled the room, Aphrodite would barge into the kitchen. Expecting Psyche to still be on the floor sorting out all the little pieces of grain, but instead she was standing there with all the little piles sorted. Aphrodite was stunned and as she looked at the piles, her gaze would go to Psyche and she'd click her tongue against her teeth. Trying to figure out exactly how she had managed to do the impossible.

"I have completed the task, dear beloved Goddess, please can I speak to Eros?"

The goddess hummed and looked over the piles before she drew closer to Psyche. Waving a hand at her, "You completed a task, one simple task and nothing more. I don't know how you did it, and I don't care to know how you managed. It doesn't mean you have earned the right to anything. I have another task for you. Before you are to do it, you must prepare breakfast for the house. Now go with Worry and Sorrow and prepare the meal and when you are finished, I will have that other task ready for you."

The girl would head off to fetch some supplies for breakfast. Exhausted and tired, she felt defeated all over again, but she would not give up. Not even as the two handmaidens began their torture all anew. Unaware that the very breakfast she was preparing was for none other than her husband that she was desperately seeking, for he was also in the house of Aphrodite, locked away in the tower room upstairs. Though she didn't even know it.