A Wayward Arrow

Chapter Nine: Locked in a Tower

Eros flew off into the night. Flying as far away from the palace as he could till he ended up at the temple of Aphrodite, his mother. He hadn't gone directly to her, knowing that if she had found out that she would be none too happy, but he knew nowhere else to go. The god was hurt and bleeding and, with his wings also hurt from the plunge of the knife and the hot burning oil, he wasn't going to be flying anywhere else.

He lay there for a while. Staring up at the vaulted ceiling and breathing deeply to edge the pain away. The scents of her oils and incenses the humans used to worship her were heavy all around the temple and it eased his mind away from the pain in his body and mind. Even still, he was tired. Each breath he made was slow so that he didn't expand his chest very far. For not only did it ache from his wounds but from the betrayal of Psyche.

As he lay there, he tried not to cry out. Knowing the hot heat of his tears stung to his eyes and wetted down the side of his face. Clouding his vision as his body bled out onto the marbled floor. He was unaware that his blood was calling out to someone and that his tears, as they mingled with this scent, were doing much of the same and when they came, their presence went unannounced as he lay there in his pity and sorrow.

"What happened here?"

The feminine voice was all too familiar. Both warm and sultry. Demanding in all the same tones that had Eros turning his head as his eyes opened. Spotting the image of his mother standing over him. Her brows were knitted together with worry and fury while her fists were hitched up on her hips. She looked like a warrior in her stance as she looked over her son, wondering what exactly had happened to leave him in such a state, bleeding ichor straight onto her hallowed floors.

"Oh mother..." Eros finally choked out through his sorrow. "I should have known you'd come if I laid here long enough."

"What happened? Tell me what happened! Who hurt you? Who did this to you? I shall hold them responsible for doing this to you!"

"Psyche, please don't do anything. I know she knew not what she was doing. Not really and I, well I... I couldn't do what you told me to..." Everything he said was coming out rushed.

Eros was trying to sit up but everything was too painful. He shifted, managing to turn onto his side to sort of face his mother, but the pitiful position he took propped up on one arm drew the goddess to instead move to her knees. The stance she took fell away to become the doting mother that now dried away the tears from her son's face with the hem of her gowns as she stroked his cheek. The fury fully replaced the worry upon her face.

"Tell me everything, Eros, my beloved son."

"That day you sent me out to set her up with the most vile creature? There was an accident. I shot myself with my own arrow. I am the vile creature that you wanted her set up with. I tried, mother. I tried to resist her but I couldn't and before I knew it I had Apollo helping me. Her parents sent for help from an Oracle and we gave her word that Psyche was to be mine. She couldn't find a match because of my arrows, mother. So I sent the winds to bring her to me. I hid it from you, I hid the marriage from everyone. I thought if I could keep it quiet, then I could keep her to myself but-"

"I can't believe you did this, Eros. You know that mortals cannot be with us on our plane of existence. Not like that."

"I know, and I know you hate her mother... and that she betrayed me. I told her not to look upon me. I allowed her sisters to visit her and they talked her into attacking me. She attacked me, mother. She poured hot oil upon me and stabbed me. She feared me just as everyone else does. When she saw my eyes, she attacked me..."

"Why didn't you come straight to me?"

"Because I knew how much you hate her for how mortals treated her. For how they spoke of her in regards to you and I just... I didn't know where to go. I don't want you to seek revenge upon her. I just want to try to forget any of this ever happened."

"You're coming home."

There was no protesting even if he wanted to or not. Aphrodite was pulling him up by his wounded arm and he was moving with a wince and a hissing groan. Then the two of them were taking off towards her home. The palace of Aphrodite was something to marvel at. It was more extravagant than even the palace of Eros, with just as much gold and marbled inlay than he had. Though it didn't matter, she was taking him high up into the tower room that he spent most of his youth in.

Aphrodite laid him out on the bed. Looking over the wounds that had been inflicted upon her son and though Eros would live, he knew it would take some time to heal from these wounds. They were deep and they were made with a weapon not from the mortal sphere but from one made within the realm of gods. Even the oil was not something to scoff at. The way it burned into his skin and down his back. He was grievously wounded and Aphrodite was furious.

"You are not to be seeing that girl anymore." Aphrodite spoke. "If you so much as try to leave this room, I will have your wings ripped straight from your back, understood?"

Aphrodite left the room. Eros didn't have to get up from bed to know Aphrodite had locked him inside for he had heard the lock click into place. He was exhausted and after all the herbs had been used he was in no position to fight or to even attempt to get up, so he did not. Instead, he would simply lie there in bed. Drifting in and out of consciousness. As he did, he kept seeing the room between his visions of a dream and awake. The golden walls and the purple canopy that surrounded his bed to the hearth which offered him warmth with its amber glow. The only time the doors would open would be for the maids and for his mother to come in to tend to him or the room.

- - - -

The next morning came but Psyche had not found any sleep the night before. She had been up all night crying over what she had done. Not only had she hurt him but she had betrayed her marriage and now Eros was gone. She had been married not to a monster but the god of love, and though everything now made sense, everything now made zero sense. Why had the oracle told her he was a winged monster? If only the oracle had never said such things, then Psyche would never have attacked her husband.

She eventually got up out of her bed. Looking over her chambers and the whirlwind state they were in. Everything was scattered. Not just from when Eros had tossed her back into her vanity, but from the powerful thrust of his wings as he had taken off into the night. She sighed out, wondering exactly what she was going to do. Perhaps if she waited he would come back.

So Psyche waited. She waited for a week in this enchanted palace for Eros to come back, but in that time there had been no sight or sound of the god. It was becoming obvious that he wasn't coming back. Not to the palace and not to her. So she started to devise a plan over those couple of days that she would go out and look for him. She'd ride the winds back down to the mortal realm and she would seek out the help of whoever would aid her.

So exactly one week later, that was exactly what she did. She'd get dressed and had Fiona pleat her hair back away from her face and with one last look back at the palace that had been her home for the last couple of months, she rode the winds of Zephyr back down to the mortal realm and back down to the top of the mountain. Here, it would seem so odd to be back on this plane of existence, but she had a mission.

She made her way back down the mountain and made her way towards the kingdom. She was welcomed by a fanfare from her mother and father, who were surprised to see their beloved daughter. After all, they had been told by her sisters that she was fine and with child and would probably never come back down to see them. So their surprise at seeing their daughter was one they took with both happiness and speculation.

Even so, they'd hold a feast for the return of their daughter. The hall was filled with the smells of various cooked goods and the music was playing as plenty of people were boasting loudly with their merrymaking and dancing, but there was one who seemed none too happy at all and that was Psyche. She seemed just as gloomy and doomed as she had the day that they had taken her up to the mountain-side to be taken by the winds. However, she was confiding in her mother. Wanting advice on what to do.

"I betrayed him. I let Priscilla and Maricela trick me into hurting him and now he is gone, mother, whatever should I do?"

"Seek out answers at the temple of Demeter... surely a god will know where another god would be." Her mother confided with her.

"Of course! Why didn't I think of that? Of course, the gods would know where another god is! Thank you mother, you always know exactly what to say. I will go tomorrow to seek my answers from Demeter."

Psyche would cheer up a bit, looking down to her belly. While she wasn't far enough along yet to begin to show, she'd still place a hand upon her stomach and sighed with her content. She would find Eros and she would tell him about their child and things would go back to the way they were before. She just knew it. It had to.