Son of Love and Fire

Chapter 20

For the goddess of love, the past couple months had been entirely different to the last few decades. In the past she had made the bare minimum guest appearances, supporting her carefully constructed façade, whilst away from the prying eyes of Olympus she withered away.

Her discussion with Hestia had reinvigorated the life within the goddess and each day from then on was lived to its fullest. No longer secluding herself to the confines of her palace or an empty forest as she got lost in her few cherished memories of her child, Aphrodite had decided to occupy herself with spreading her domain within the mortal world.

For the past couple months, the goddess had travelled through the mortal world as unobtrusively as possible. She blessed many couples in love and aided those trapped in loveless relationships, not only that but she aided those in times of desperation using a small portion of the fortune she amassed from offerings.

Helping mortals brought Aphrodite great joy and a much needed respite from the crushing loneliness that had consumed her life for so long. Unfortunately, such distraction couldn't last forever, each night Aphrodite would retire to her palace, the building becoming the marvel of many of the mountains residents due to its recent unveiling. As the goddess laid down to rest her mind would wander to her discussion with Hestia and she would be face with a massive jumble of emotions.

Whilst her excitement and joy could barely be quenched, doubt and fear lingered in her mind. Even though Hestia's word was beyond reproach and she had even sworn to much of what she said on the Styx, Aphrodite couldn't help but question whether what she was told could possibly be true. On top of that fears grew within her as to whether her child would accept or even want her around, such thoughts soon tumbling onto frightening thoughts of her son hating her for not having been there for him or protecting him.

As a result of her current state, Aphrodite gained little rest, which whilst unnecessary for immortal beings such as herself, often would aid in calming the mind and controlling such rampant emotions. Because of her insomnia, Aphrodite found herself spending long nights imagining what Perseus' life could have been like, unfortunately these ideas often leant closer to nightmares than dreams.

Alongside all of this, the goddess' hatred of Poseidon came back to the forefront, no longer clouded out by her past despair. Aphrodite was often overlooked, not only due to her carefully created image, but because of the Olympian arrogance that nothing could be greater than themselves. So, whilst many would believe that she would be impulsive in her vengeance, in reality the goddess of love was much more cunning. She knew that war would resolve nothing and causing him grief would only create trouble for everyone and likely harm the mortals to which most Olympians gave little regard. Instead, she had decided to wait for the most ideal moment to arise, and together, once reunited with her son, along with other immortals who held similar feelings of resentment, they could exact justice. Never-the-less, this didn't stop the goddess from planning out and imagining methods of destroying the god who had tricked her and attempted to kill her beloved child.

Due to Aphrodite's new lifestyle, she was far more observant of the people around her on the mountain and had seen that Hestia was not often found at Olympus beyond the occasional council meeting, and the same could be said for Demeter. Whilst this is not all too unusual for other gods, both of those goddesses were at most times found on Olympus until this recent development.

Aphrodite wanted to know what was going on, having the feeling that this had some relation to her child, but before she could do anything, she reminded herself of Hestia's promise and that the goddess in question would never break her word, especially not in a case such as this.

Tension built each day as her anticipation grew, as such she decided that she would spend the day training her combat which she felt must have grown rusty due to not being used since the Titan War. Fortunately, she found the exact person she was looking for, the god of war himself, Ares. The egotistical god had claimed time and time again to have bedded the love goddess and Aphrodite hadn't seen to correct him as it supported her manufactured image.