The Divine Deucalion of Aether

By Moonlight

By the light of the moon, Falco and Rowena walked along the nearby stand, servants having been summoned to take Achilles to his chamber. They had walked in silence together for close to an hour, both thinking of what they had learned, while Kenneth had returned to the monarchial accommodations. The Earth Bull was chained beneath Aether so what would happen when he finally broke free from his chains in a twelvemonth's time? Would Aether be destroyed? While the threat of a coup from the Priesthood of the Earth Bull was more immediate, the fact was that the Earth Bull breaking his chains was far worse than the possibility of a successful coup led by Taurus or Minos.

"Oh, dear!" Falco looked to Rowena in surprise, unsure of why she had cried out so. Then she uttered: "There is blood on the fingers tips of my right hand!"

Falco leaned over to look with raised eyebrow. Upon noticing the blood, he commented: "More noticeable on the tip of your index finger than the others. You must have lightly touched one of the statues by accident."

Walking towards the water, Rowena knelt down and quickly washed the blood from her finger tips. Once she had finished though, she did not stand up. She simply sat down in the sand, the water touching her knees, and said: "I wish I could have come with you, Falco. My suitors would never respect that my mourning period for my father had not passed yet, nor that my heart belongs to one man alone. Every night I would come here to the strand, Falco, praying for your return. I would fall asleep here and I would awaken, hoping that you had returned during the night. I could find no peace in my abode, my suitors were always there as were my stepmother's, hers no more respecting that the mourning period had not passed than mine. It has only been with your parents that I have been able to find peace away from my suitors, while my stepmother's keep her prisoner in her and my father's bedchamber. Oh, Falco... I wish I could have been with you, even if it was dreary, to be with you in Tethys would have been joyous."

Taking a seat next to her on the sand, Falco looked to Rowena, who in turn looked to him. He opened his mouth to speak, only to close it and swallow nervously. Being trained for public speaking was one thing, telling the woman he loved how he felt was another thing entirely.

Had it come so easily to his father Tigris when he first told his mother Oda that he loved her? Had it come so easily to his grandfather Conall when he first told his grandmother Elizabeth that he loved her? Falco could only hope.

"R-Rowena..." he began, looking into the reddish-brown eyes of the Daughter of Alfred. "When I heard that you were to marry Hannibal, I felt as if a dagger had been plunged into my heart. The day of the wedding, I intended march into the Chapel of the Great Mother and declare that the marriage would not take place and declare my adoration for you. Had Taurus not gotten there first, I would have. When I was away from here, I was worried about you as much as I was worried about my father and I lost sleep worrying about you both and I am happy that you are both safe... I just wish..."

"You wish you had come home to find your father well." Rowena finished, taking hold of Falco's hand and smiling at him. "I wish he was well too. When he fell ill, I ran to the Chapel of the Sun God and have prayed every morn that he will be healed."

"He must be asleep." Falco commented. "Or otherwise engaged with some fair maiden... Or someone else's prayers have his attention." Laying back on the strand's sand, the Crown Prince of Aether then commented: "The gods are strange... Their true names, their true forms, all a mystery to us while their morals are so much like our own, varying from individual to individual. God, demigod, just plain mortal, our moralities with their wondrous varieties makes us all the same in a way. What even is a demigod? Every priest and priestess, the High Priest of the Earth Bull excluded, is called the child of their patron, but is that all a demigod is? A priest? Every monarch is said to be a god on earth, so as the child of a monarch does that make me a demigod? The Priesthood of the Storm Falcon say that I am the son of their patron because a falcon appeared over the doorway of my parents' bedchamber on the day I was born, but I resemble both my father and grandfather and too my thinking a demigod would not look as perfectly human as I."

"Maybe they are insane just as my mother was." Rowena suggested, letting go of Falco's hand. "She said I was the Storm Falcon's daughter, that I emerged from an egg she had laid after the Storm Falcon had come to her one night, but all the world knows it is impossible for a woman to lay an egg, yet my mother still insisted that was what happened. As you observed, demigods and demigoddesses would not look as perfectly human as we."

"Aye, perhaps." Falco uttered as he proceeded to stroke his chin thoughtfully. The Storm Falcon, chief deity he may have been by supplanting the Earth Bull, was egocentric and barbarous with a long list of atrocities to the appellation he was known by, most often orchestrating a war simply so he could have a new fane built. "I truly doubt any sane person would worship or claim to be the child of the Storm Falcon." As barbarous as he could be, the Storm Falcon was not going to smite Falco for that. Mortals had a right to criticize deities just as other deities did. "You know, I wouldn't mind a pilgrimage to Amen-Ra to see his primary fane, Rowena. Maybe when my father is better and this coup business is taken care of, and when Acinonyx has gone home of course, you and I can go, maybe bring some friends—" Suddenly feeling water hit his face, Falco sat up to find Rowena standing in the ocean, the water up to her knees. She was bending down, her hands close to the water with a playful grin upon her countenance. Falco, remembering how they used to splash around together as children, quickly smiled and leapt into the water, returning Rowena's splash with one of his own. Quickly diving into the water, Rowena swam away with Falco quickly following her into the deep.

The Sea was said to not only be another world, but a deity as well, jealously guarding his secrets from even his fellow deities. He was beautiful, majestic and savage, capable of being kind as well as cruel depending on his mood. This evening he was calm and his inhabitants were swimming in peace by the light of the moon, the coral beautifully illuminated. From the noble, yet small horn shark to the sinister octopus, many a creature was out and about, none of them paying Falco or Rowena any mind. An eel poked its head out of its undersea lair, taking a moment to watch the two go by before returning to the safety of its abode.

As the Crown Prince of Aether and the Daughter of Alfred swam beneath the waves, the latter paused and pointed to something. Falco followed Rowena's finger and saw the giant oyster that had been nestled amongst the coral since the infancy of Falco's paternal great-grandfather. Within the oyster was a black pearl the size of a human head at least.

Surfacing for air, Rowena said to Falco: "Well, there is something to tell the pearl divers about."

Chuckling, Falco replied: "Yes, best to leave it to the professionals." His tone then turned serious as he added: "Don't want a repeat of six twelvemonths ago. I still don't know what Scholastica was thinking. She could have drowned."

"She's learned since then, Falco." Rowena commented, taking the Son of Tigris by the hand. "Want to continue our swim?"

"Actually..." Falco looked to the right where a small islet lay only a stone's throw away. "How about we spend some time there? Just like we used to?"

Giving the Crown Prince a kiss on the cheek, Rowena said: "It sounds splendid." And with that, the two made their way to the small islet, with Falco already planning on what he was to do tomorrow. Tomorrow, he would be dealing with Rowena's suitors.