Chapter Text
Thanks go to my fabulous friend and magical beta, Toots. Toots is Brilliant.
**********
“It is time.”
The woman he was speaking to stepped to the marble balcony and stared down upon the clouds, her vision sharpening until she could see the cities and people who dwelt within. “And we are sure this must be done?”
The man approached and wrapped his arms tenderly around her shoulders. “You know as well as I that this must be done. Our children, my children…” he corrected himself.
She looked at him with love. She knew he always feared she’d turn her back on the children that were not her own. “I love your children with others as much as I love my own. You should know this by now.”
Relief filled him. “Our children spend eternal youth with us, never hearing the tales told by humans. They do not know the love you and I share. They will not unless we send them.”
“It will be difficult on them,” she met his dark gaze with her own. “Learning the stories passed down by human hand. They will be confused… and angry.”
“They are intelligent, all of them. The end result is really what concerns us. It is time, my dearest love. Orpheus is in place and he will let us know if any problems arise.”
Her lips spread into an easy smile, “Ah yes, dear Orpheus, and has he made any progress in his own search?”
“No; which proves nothing truer than that soulmates do not automatically recognize each other. The boy is still focused on the woman he married and the school guidance counselor.”
“And still our sweet Eurydice waits,” she sighed.
Zeus looked at the woman who had been his wife for thousands of years. So many storytellers had told the story of Zeus and Hera, and so many had gotten it wrong. So many had woven tales of the pantheon of the Gods and Goddesses, of his children and his infidelities, and not one had been the truth. It wasn’t as if he could give out interviews. The stories that had been told of his Hera were cruel. They made her sound jealous and waspish. They made her sound as if she hated his children by other women. They made her into an unpleasant shrew when she was anything but. She was the Goddess of Love and Marriage after all. He loved her as much today as the day he first saw her and realized he must have her to wed.
“We cannot show them the way, my sweet. They must find their own path. But we can certainly put them where they need to be.”
**