Great treasure halls hath Zeus in heaven,
From whence to man strange dooms be given,
Past hope or fear.
And the end men looked for cometh not,
And a path is there where no man thought:
So hath it fallen here.
- Medea

She descends from the heavens, born aloft by a flight of cranes that hold her extended arms. The Thunderer descends a scene of carnage and ruin, and through the blood her family comes to her.

HADES
"O sister, see how I have been cut,
Through the throat by one I sought,
No life escapes these breathless lips
Heal my wounds with your tender gifts."

ZEUS
"I shall not."

APHRODITE
"O daughter-son, killer mine,
I spit on you and more besides,
But raise my spirit from stalking death
Else your kingdom shall draw no breath."

ZEUS
"Then let it fall."

[The gods of Love and Death cry out.]

ZEUS
"When the throne is silent and throne is still,
When strange gardens grow as they will,
When the Fisher King rots first from the head,
His power does not join him in the land of the dead.

And so it was with I, the king of the gods
Trapped by mercy and love and gambler's odds
No courage could bring me to the use of my throne
And so living power fled and left me alone.

Once I set a chain and bound all the stars,
And all of my siblings, Poseidon to Mars,
All of them hauled and could not lift my hand,
Now I will not either, it has crumbled to sand.

Power is living. It goes where it is used,
And your wicked strength has too long abused,
I did not stop you for that was my curse,
But neither will I raise you up from the Earth.

Rise Hermes."

[She rises]

"You have been dead as long as I,
Stagnant when you used to fly
Your throne, too, has rotted alone
But power has long since found a new home."

Rise Redana."

[She rises]

"In death you sought life,
In life you sought more,
In death you found your wife,
In life a galaxy to explore.

Rise Bella."

[She rises]

"Love and death. Death and love.
You are loved by the dead
And died here for love.

You were born of love
But knew only death
And yet forged new love
Amongst those of death.

Life, death and love.
Thrones vacant three
Take your crowns of death and life
And let love exist between."

APHRODITE
"And what of Vengeance, O King Divine?
Thy blood is still the same as mine
And late it has been spil't."

HADES
"Persephone has no guilt."

ZEUS
"I must answer one last time to my family
And pass sentence on Dolce of Beri
Aphrodite's last curse is his last decree
No more shall this sheep's eyes see."

APHRODITE
"I want more."

ZEUS
"You did not ask for more."

APHRODITE
"I wish to punish the child."

ZEUS
"Which child? Name her."

APHRODITE
"I cannot. She has no name."

ZEUS
"Then go to the House of Bella, and trouble us no longer."

[He departs]

ZEUS
"An absent father has many sins
And so much debt to pay
But a present one can be ever worse
When her shadow hides the day
Rage against my coward's heart
That let this ending pass
I only ask you play your part
And let the wheel turn.
And should this journey have been worth your time
Then I humbly bid you pray
I know already all the pain and tears
And suffering along the way.
This is the end of my kingdom that I could not write
I could not make it alone
And now, at last, where it began,
I break at last my throne."

It did no good to explain these things to the God of the Dead. Nuance was not nor had it ever been her strong suit: it was not a thing that had fallen into her domain, and so she had no use for it. And even to begin with the concepts of value and usefulness had stopped carrying much weight at all now that she had shed her mortal shell and become a thing of divinity.

"...For the last time Bella, it's not wine! It's called sake and it is different and I am begging you not to make an ass of yourself in front of the Goddess of the Hunt again!"

Bella lifted the small stone bottle between two fingers and stared at it with curiosity flickering in her golden eyes. She poured a small measure into the tiny saucer in her hand and swirled the clear liquid about, setting it down without touching it to her lips at all.

"It looks like wine to me, Beljani."

"Bhhh! You! Just 'cause you outrank me now doesn't mean you're an expert on treats! Does that smell like grapes to you? No! Does it look dark? N-"

"There are white wines, you know."

"Yes but! Not the! This is clearly different! It's not white either, for one thing! It's clear, like water! And for another you're not supposed to chill this one! It needs to be warmed up or it won't release the aromatics right! Those are the best part, Bella!"

"Of wine?"

"Of! Sake!"

"You're getting really spun up about this," said Bella, "Does it even matter when Artemis doesn't drink?"

"She does, though! She does when she's bathing! And it matters a lot because your predecessor had a rad as hell Casino Fort - which you up and trashed I will remind you - and he knew the names of every libation he served and if you ever want to have company over again YOU HAVE TO KNOW THESE THINGS! I'm right, aren't I? Vesper, help me! I know you're up there! You always are!"

Lying on her back tucked into the rafters above, Vesper lazily turned the page of her new book. She'd been reading a lot, lately. Just for the pleasure of it. All trashy fiction; it was more fun to guess the silly twists and turns than it was to study any new facts. There weren't tests to take anymore. This wasn't poison anymore. She sighed, and rested her novel on her chin.

"You, uh, don't want my help on this one Gem."

"Beljani! When I'm down here it's-- sorry. Never mind. I would, though. I would like your help. Because this uncultured oaf won't listen to me and I am running out of slippers to throw at her!"

"...Sake is rice--"

"HA!" crowed Beljani, full of triumph.

"...Wine."

Bella's cackle echoed off of every stone and bit of flowing water winding its way into the baths.

It really did no good to tell her, after all.

*****

She felt hands around her neck. Beautiful, blue, and shimmering scales. Claws trace the outline of her jaw while talented fingers peeled back the layers of her silk robes and revealed her glory to the world. Bella stood there and let the tip of her tail curl in place of words. She closed her eyes and let the pressure all crash down on her.

The weight and warmth of another person. The softness of skin and fur and the sharpness of bone and joint intertwining, mixing, until the difference between them all became irrelevant. She felt Mynx trace her collarbone and did nothing. She felt the hands against her breasts and merely stiffened. But then the tip of a claw slid down her stomach and...

"Mynx." she snapped, "You do understand I'm technically a god now. Right?"

"Mmhmm. That's why I'm worshiping you~"

"Fuck's sake, Mynx. Knock it off."

In reply, Bella felt teeth sink into her neck.

"That still doesn't work, for the record."

"Awww, that's boring. But don't worry! I'm gonna figure you out yet! Then we'll have all kinds of fun <3"

Bella snarled. Mynx's hands obligingly (if slowly) worked their way back up Bella's body and busied themselves tying a blindfold made of white flowers in place. Lilies, chamomiles, a chrysanthemum... but not a single rose. She'd refused their presence ever since she returned home. It was a stupid thing to have a hangup over. Was somebody in her positioned even meant to have hangups?

Well, yeah. Obviously. How else do you explain Zeus if not...

"Ok Bels you're all dressed and ready. Go have fun! And remember, no peaking! God or not, you really don't wanna find out what she'll do if you try to watch."

****

The water was warm. The steam was waking up her blindfold; petals unfurled across her cloth wrap and turned her whole world white even as they buried her in their soft, clean scents. She took a deep breath and descended deeper into the spring. She liked this place a lot. Ever since it fell here from Above.

There was time now, nearly infinite time to indulge all of the hobbies she'd built up in death and in life but as importantly as that, she needed to wash it all away sometimes. To soak and to let the obsessions that clung to her seep away into the water and swirl around the many smooth stones that decorated the garden here. The bamboo in particular soothed her. It felt like... like she hadn't missed out.

But today she was not alone. She tried not to swallow her nerves. It shouldn't be unusual for a meeting like this to happen. No big deal at all. She'd even been the one to suggest it.

"...I appreciate your restraint," said Artemis, "Move no closer."

In response, Bella floated a tray of wine across the water and listened for the clink where it met the goddess' hand. The broken splashing of the waterfall told her everything she needed to know about what was happening. She could picture it, if she really wanted to. She took a sip from her own cup, instead. Smooth and slightly sweet, with no burn but a vaguely pleasant sour earth note on the back of it. She let it dance across her tongue, and set the saucer down again without turning her head to follow the motion.

"Thanks for letting me join you at all. I know you can't be particularly thrilled with me, so..."

"Why do you keep assuming that? Do you think that I, out of everyone, would mince my words with you?"

"I just... I always wanted this. With everyone. But especially with you."

"You have it." said Artemis. Her fingers slid through her hair like moonlight.

"And did I... earn that? I know I wasn't the arrow that you knocked. And I didn't land even if I was. Just, when you pushed me... what were you hoping for? It couldn't have been this?"

Once, this was an important place. Once, this was a place that the universe pivoted around. Once, this was a place touched by the gods.

Only, isn’t every place like that, given enough time?

Sunshards glitter like diamonds in the sky, like the stars scattered deliberately across the wine-dark void. Below, the waves crash together against the shore, a mirror. The breeze is cool and brings with it the rustle of cypress branches, the songs of morning birds, the prickle of goosebumps on skin. There will never be another breeze that is exactly the same. A butterfly, shockingly blue, rests with its wings spread on her knee.

She expands. She lets the experience of the butterfly pass through her, the shape of it, the meaning of it, the birth in pain and the death in chill and the beauty in between. The soft cypress needles rest on her tongue. The sunshards pass through her heart with a song. A string unspools and she hooks it with her little finger.

She sits down grinning next to herself, and when the butterfly shoots up, she breathes out and it finds a place to land in Dolce’s kitchen, resting on the back of his hand, where it will receive a plate of sugar water and sun to bask in, and when Vasilia comes in for breakfast, she’ll see it and, knowing Vasilly, knowing their love, she’ll find a way to describe its shade of blue that he’s never heard before.

“Here?”
“Here, in just a moment.” She beams. They’re wearing the same practical outfit, the kind of clothes that you don’t mind getting grass stains on when you’re chasing after sheep. She has a rod in her lap which looked at one way is a crook and another is a wand.
“Do I need to…?”
“I don’t think so? Sorry, I’m still, we’re still— we’ll figure it out as we go, I think. I’ve got a lot to do backwards, because…”
“Because this is impossible.” She lets it hang in the air like a shard. She nods in agreement. “We couldn’t have gotten here. We should have failed so many times. I should have failed.”
“But it’s right that we got here. Like a eur… a… um. Like the happy ending that you don’t see coming? Like the end of Batrachomyomachia VII.”
“Would the Nemean have gotten us here?”
“Why are you asking me? I haven’t figured it out in the past five minutes!”
“It’s five minutes from now?”
“I wasn’t counting…”
The urge to pout is strong. Instead, Redana closes her mismatched eyes and reaches out more until she can almost feel the strings vibrating.
“I think, with my wisdom of approximately five minutes and divine ascension, that she would have gotten here alone and then been crushed by Aphrodite like a bug. And then he would have tied her up as a trophy and dangled her from a comet to watch entropy.”
“And the only reason I beat her is because you were there.”
“I hope I’m ready for it by then.”
“You will be. Otherwise there’s no happily ever after, and that’s the world which has to exist: one where Bella is waiting for me with her sisters, where Dolce has his izakaya, where Dyssia and Alexa and everyone get to live in a universe which will never be perfect and blue and— oh.”

Dawn breaks. She reaches out and wraps her heart around it.

She gets up and spins and laughs and dances, and everything, every wonderful little mystery, every desire not to be alone, every wishing heart turns with her.

She sits down, beaming.

“Here?”
“Here, in just a moment.”