Mini-story: The one that got away

Chapter 4 * Lost

Up in the sky is where Nike always felt the most safe and secure. No one could touch her here. With the reigns of the anemoi in her hands the victory goddess felt invincible. The four horses eagerly pulled the chariot forward. The destination didn't matter, so she let the 4 winds guide the reigns.

The angel closed her eyes and let the memories flood her mind. She knew that no matter how hard she would try she wouldn't be able to stop them. Up here they couldn't hurt her or anyone else, so Nike set them free.

"Metis! Metis!" The victory goddess called out for her friend.

She wasn't on the rock where they usually sat together. Was she hiding from her? Why would she be hiding?

"Metis!"

Nike checked the entire area around the lake, but the titaness was nowhere to be found. The angel sighed, returning to their original meeting place. Maybe she was late? Maybe she got held up?

Although it seemed unlikely to the victory goddess, she decided to wait. For hours she sat and waited. She even flew up a couple of times to see if she could spot the titaness before she even got there.

But she never showed.

Nike hugged her legs. She held back her tears. The angel didn't understand why she was so upset about this. Metis was just a friend. Yes they met here every day, but there was no obligation to it. No written rule...

The victory goddess supposed she had gotten so used to having the titaness around that it just felt strange to not have her here. She dried her tears and decided to head back home. Nike would just come back tomorrow and ask Metis what had kept her, no harm done.

The sensation of a cold wind tingling against her cheeks momentarily brought the daughter of Styx back to the present. All she saw in front of her were the four anemoi and a blue sky full of clouds that looked like cotton candy.

She felt the wind dry the wet stains her tears had left. It made a shiver go down the angel's spine. At that moment she had lost Metis and she didn't even know it back then. Part of her wished she could've prevented what happened to her dearest friend. The other was glad with the way things went, cause she might've never had the amazing wife she had today.

"Oh gods... Athena..." Nike muttered, her words lost in the wind.

She couldn't even imagine how painful it must be for the wisdom goddess to hear her wife used to be in love with her mother. All the victory goddess could hope was that her wife wasn't willing to give up on the two of them.

She really couldn't handle a second loss like that.

For an entire week Nike had been coming back to the rock and everyday she had waited for hours, but Metis never showed up. With tears threatening to stream down her cheeks she made her way back to the entrance she usually used to enter the underworld.

Her home had never been so fitting to her mood until now. Usually the angel longed to escape it, now she would do nothing rather than return to it and never leave again.

The victory goddess felt like one of the lost souls on the edge of her mother's river banks. Walking around aimlessly without a single goal, nothing to keep them going, they were just utterly lost.

As she flew through the doors, the servants had trouble with keeping up on opening them. Sadly she had to pass the throne room, where her mother Styx and father Pallas would most likely be, to get to her own wing of the huge castle.

All the five separate wings of the castle needed to pass the throne room. Styx and Pallas had designed it that way so they could keep a better eye on where everyone was headed.

Nike's light aesthetic stood out against the dark stones of the castle. All throughout the dark palace streams of water came out of the wall like mini waterfalls. Each of those came directly from her mother's river. Styx was ever present all around the castle, so in the end, there was no way she could enter without her mother knowing.

The angelic deity halted before the door that would lead her through the throne room. The servants that had been running after her to open doors took it as an opportunity to catch their breath. Nike wondered if she could hurry past her parents.

She nodded at the servants. It was worth a shot. When the door opened just far enough for her to squeeze through, the angel flew to the door that would lead her to her own wing of the castle as fast as she could.

"Nike!" She heard her mother call after her, but the servants already closed the door behind her.

The victory goddess sighed in relief. She did not want to speak to her mother at all.

"Nike." Styx called out again.

This time however the voice seemed to come from all around Nike.

'Right. She's everywhere.'  She thought, remembering the streams of water.

The angel ignored her mother's voice and decided to get to her room before the titaness had the chance to materialize in the hallway and physically stop her.

Nike rounded a couple of corners and entered her room, locking the door behind her. Not that it would keep a nosey immortal such as her mother out, but she hoped it would send a message across that she didn't want to see or speak to anyone.

The victory goddess flopped down on her bed and stayed there, drowning in her pillow. She let out the tears she'd been holding in since she left the upperworld. For once she welcomed the melancholy of the underworld. For once she joined in its tragic story.