Chapter 2: Brothers Love
As nightfall dawned on Olympus,
Josephine sat at her family’s large dinner table in their quarters. All big twelve Olympians lived within the same kingdom, except for
Hades who was banished to the underworld by his father, Zeus, and Poseidon. Josephine
was the only daughter of Ares. With ten brothers on her father’s side, she was
the only female that lived in Ares’ quarters. On her mother’s side though,
Josephine was merely a middle child, having sixteen half-siblings—mixed
genders. Josephine had two other siblings that shared both parental
genes—Harmonia and Anteros.
Harmonia is many years older than Josephine,
and so is Anteros. Josephine was born about twenty years after both of them
were born. She didn’t see Harmonia much, being as Harmonia had birthed children
herself—and was busy most of the time setting harmony to earthlings. Harmonia
hadn’t visited Mount Olympus for almost ten years now.
In total, she had twenty-six
siblings and was overlooked by most of them.
The large corridor in which they
sat for supper was rather large. The ceilings were almost fifty feet tall and
smooth, ceramic columns lined each corner of the room—each one as white as a
dove. Those columns represented power, peace, and wealth.
Josephine’s brothers sat all around
her and shoved their mouths with food. They weren’t the most handsome, polite,
or house-trained boys, but they were definitely warriors.
“I heard that Josephine kicked some
lightning-bolt spawn’s ass today,” Josephine’s oldest brother chuckled, looking
up at his tired and overworked sister.
“Don’t even start, Anteros,” Josephine
grumbled, shoving a large honey-crusted carrot into her mouth. She didn’t look
up at her brothers and instead stayed with her gaze focused on her plate.
“I heard you got lucky, Sister,” Phobos
spat. Phobos was the god of panic. He hadn’t even known about Josephine until
recently, and Josephine had still been trying to figure out his vibe. He rarely
talked and when he did, it seemed to always be something negative. Definitely
something Phobos inherited from his father.
Josephine chose not to respond at
that moment and ignored her brother’s slick remark. But, Phobos is right.
Josephine didn’t think she would even make it past trial one. She glanced at
Anteros and noticed all of her other eight brothers were staring at her.
Josephine was used to being looked at differently from the others.
The staring contest didn’t last
long once Josephine stood up and abandoned her dinner. She quickly started
walking towards her quarters, the dim lights of the palace defining the vast
shadows that lurked against the walls. She could hear Anteros’ heavy footsteps
behind her, but she ignored them as she approached her door. Josephine had
become a professional at ignoring things.
Just as she was about to open her
door, Anteros placed his muscular hand on it, and pushed it back shut.
Josephine turned to him with an annoyed look on her face, “And what is the
problem now?”
“We’re worried about you, you
know,” Anteros whispered to her as a heavy-set guard passed by them, whistling
a tune.
“Oh, so now you’re worried,”
Josephine chuckled, “Now, spare me the lecture. I need to get some sleep. I
have training with Theseus in the morning before dawn.”
“Now is not the time to be
hardheaded, Josie.”
Anteros never used her nickname
unless he wanted something from her. She knew this because when they were younger,
Anteros would try and draw from Josephine’s power and use it for battle.
Anteros and Josephine always had a connection that none of the other siblings
had, and they’ve kept it a secret for this long.
Josephine shoved past his arm and
into her quarters, where Anteros followed behind her. He wasn’t going down
without a fight, it seems—or at least a heated debate. Anteros looked at
Josephine as his fragile little sister, the weak one. Josephine was destined to
prove him, her father, and everyone else in Olympus wrong.
“If you do not leave me be,
Anteros, Gods forgive me, I will--,” Josephine started, before Anteros’
voice overpowered hers.
“You’ll what, sister?” He growled,
stepping closer to her, “Kill me? Yell at me? Banish me?” He laughed as he sat
on her bed, and the cream-satin sheets crinkled as he crossed his arms and
stared her down, “You think that you can defeat Enyo’s daughter? Is that
realistic, Josie? Dimitra has been training for years. She found her power.
Have you even tried to find your gift?”
As Josephine stood there listening
to him, her eyes started to water. Heat overcame her whole entire body. All she
felt was rage, betrayal, and skepticism. She didn’t even know that the daughter
of Enyo was her next opponent.
Enyo was close friends with her
father. She was the goddess of war and destruction. If Dimitra was anything
like her mother, Josephine didn’t stand a chance.
The mention of her absent gift made
her want to puke. All of her brothers, and Harmonia, had already mastered their
gifts. Anteros, for example, could take a long-term view of relationships and
coax deeper, less chaotic emotions. He drew unselfish affection from people,
but it didn’t work on Josephine. Anteros knew Josephine had gifts, because he
would try and draw from them regularly, but he could never pinpoint what the
gift was.
“Mother told me that the gift will
reveal itself, when the Gods commend it to,” Josephine glared at him, and
tossed her coat on the night stand next to her cot. Normally, she would put it
in the hamper, and bring it down to the wash-ladies, but today, she was
abnormally tired. All she wanted was to sleep.
“How is it that Cycnus discovered
his gift before you, the mortal among all gods?” He chuckled, “And yet, here
you are—”
“Stop it right this instant,”
Josephine stopped him, and she moved closer to him. Her voice lowered into a
threatening whisper, “Do not compare me to Cycnus, Dimitra, Harmonia, or anybody
else. I am not them.”
“Of course, you aren’t, Josephine,”
Anteros’ voice grew somewhat paternal, “And that’s why I need to keep you safe,
away from all this. Father said that they need people to tend to the garden. I
think it would be a great way to honor the gods.”
Josephine wasn’t angry anymore. She
could be mad at her father, mad at the world, but not Anteros. He’d been
nothing but nice to her, and he’d always been her sole protector. Sometimes
Josephine wonders if Ares requested him of that duty.
“I will be fine,” She sat next to
him and placed a dainty hand on his shoulder, “but, there is something you can
do for me.”
“And what is that, sister?” He looked
at her with a puzzled grin on his face.
“Teach me about Dimitra’s power. If
I’m dueling her tomorrow, I need an advantage.”
~
After Anteros told Josephine about
Dimitra’s gifts and left, Josephine focused on her strategies for her second
trial. Anteros had warned her about Dimitra’s gift of warfare. She had a very
similar gift to Athena, although Dimitra’s is more focused on weaponry. Josephine
could expect Dimitra to wield a bow and arrow, sword, or pocketknife.
In the trials, weapons were allowed.
Josephine found this unfair, as she had only learned how to wield a knife, and
that isn’t fast enough to stop a bow and arrow. If Dimitra were to choose that,
Josephine would ultimately be fucked. She needed to figure out another plan.
Josephine glanced over at her
clock. One fifty-seven. Almost two AM. Josephine needed to get some sleep, or
she was going to perform horribly tomorrow. She turned off the light and allowed
herself to drift off into the dreamlands.
~
Josephine woke to the sound of horns
and cattle. It was still dark outside. She could hear the maids as they shuffled outside her quarters, and
they talked in Greek tongue about the second trial today. Many people were
competing, and Josephine’s duel was at four PM.
She sat up quickly and shuffled into
her closet. Today, she picked out a black halter top and thick pants. Her stomach
was begging for some food, so she headed down to the dining hall and took a
seat in the corner of the room. The dining hall was large, taking up almost two
fourths of Ares’ quarters, and all of his servants and children were only
allowed there. Muscular guards lined the entry and magic was heavily felt—a shield
was placed by Zeus to protect all common areas of the Gods.
Pictures of the Trojan War, Ares
and his disciples, and weaponry lined the brown-painted walls. The agriculture
in every deities building was truly extravagant, the lines in the ceramic outlined
a story—like hieroglyphics.
A servant approached Josephine
almost immediately, “Josephine, how are you my dear?”
Josephine looked up at the woman to
discover it was her favorite maiden, Eleni. Eleni had watched Josephine grow up
and was one of Ares’ favorite servants as well. Although Josephine didn’t like
calling them servants, they insisted on being called such. Eleni was there when
Josephine picked up her first sword, took her first bath, and spoke her first
words. Josephine admired Eleni like a mother and swore that if anything
happened to her—she would go absolutely crazy.
“I’m okay, Eleni. Getting ready for
this trial.”
“Oh, my love, how is that going?” Eleni’s eyes dimmed.
“As good as you would expect it to
be,” Josephine smiled in attempt to soothe Eleni’s nervousness for her, “Do you
have oranges and angel cake today? Maybe some bacon?”
Eleni paused and eyed down
Josephine, as if she knew. Maybe she knew Josephine was struggling. Anteros
might have told her. Just as Josephine
was about to speak again, Eleni scurried away towards the kitchen.
Josephine watched her with angst
and sat back in her chair. She let out a long groan of frustration and looked
up at the winding staircase to her left, where a man appeared. That man was no
one other than her father.
Glad you enjoyed this Chapter!
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