The Queen's Irony

3

She felt herself fall, for two seconds. Two arms wrapped themselves around her stomach and jerked her back over the fence. She wriggled in the arms of her saviour upset for being foiled.

"Hey! What was that for? What's your problem?" Adiya cried out. She was dropped back onto solid ground with a heavy thud.

Then she heard her voice. It was a British tone, a pleasant female voice. She immediately recognized it as her voice and thought out of everyone why was it her that saved her,"What's my problem? Sweetie, you just about almost committed suicide. With my reputation it would've turned into murder in a heartbeat. What were you thinking anyway? Jumping off. That's a cowardly way to go you know?"

Adiya didn't answer as she continued to gawk at the queen of the gods. She was hunched over resting on the ledge trying to steady her breathing. She shook her head at Adiya disappointedly,"I know you have no morals but that's a line you do not cross, child. Have you really dug yourself that deep?"

Hera had been walking back to her temple after visiting Krasnodar. She saw Adiya standing on the ledge and she mentally face palmed thinking, This harpy is going to send me to Tartarus. She had run from one end of the park to the other in a speed that would've made Hermes proud and had caught her just as she was about to fall.

Finally she caught her own breath and noticed Adiya still staring in shock. Hera glowered,"Oh don't flatter yourself. You do realize that if I'd had let you fall your suicide attempt would have looked 'too staged' and was 'trying to distract from the obvious answer which is murder.' Zeus would've had my head by the end of the week."

After a bit of awkward silence Adiya broke the tension with the only words she could think of saying to Hera, "Thank you." She avoided making eye contact with Hera. She didn't want to offend her and she certainly didn't want to talk about why she was jumping mountains into cities below. She felt shameful and she wondered if Hera had anything to do with that.

Hera sighed closing her eyes and regained her composure,"Okay, I am worried, but only because your stupidity can get me into trouble. Why did you do that?" Adiya only shook her head looking away in shame.

Hera gave a frustrated sigh and cupped her chin, forcing her to look at the goddess directly,"Come now, love. Nothing you say will make me hate you more than I already do. But just in case, I do advise you to choose your words wisely."

"..I-I didn't want to go to Zeus today. I was tired of being used just for my...for my..." Adiya forced her head back down and stared at her hands which lay in her lap.

Hera straightened herself taken aback by her response, she could already feel her blood boiling,"He summoned you?" The wench nodded.

"I disappear for a day or two he thinks it's okay to fuck his little prostitute. The nerve of y-" Hera scowled. She stopped after seeing a small tear run down Adiya's cheek.

Hera let out another short growl. She couldn't let Zeus or any other god see her cry especially not with Hera present on Olympus. Her reputation was bad enough with the constant slander and the beatings she received from Zeus had gotten so bad it hurt to move, and all because of the constant torment she'd give this pathetic girl. And if Adiya went to Zeus bawling like a child, only the fates know how much worst it'd get.

She held out a hand to her,"Stand up, you little vex. You look pathetic on your knees like that."

The girl got to her feet trembling. She was afraid Hera would do something to her and so she didn't take her hand. Hera shrugged. Understandable.

But she needed to get her to stop crying. Hera flicked her hand and a handkerchief appeared she gave it to Adiya who took it and dabbed her eyes.

Another moment's silence. The two women stood still for an uncomfortably long time. Adiya looked up, Hera was looking around the park making sure they were the only two, Adiya looked back down and heard the latter give out an exasperated sigh. Adiya looked back up at the goddess who had taken out a pack of cigarettes and put one in her mouth. She took a long drag and blew the smoke out over her shoulder facing the patio.

"You smoke?" Adiya asked.

Hera shrugged,"Well, when you have a family as dramatic and dysfunctional as mine there's no other way to roll off the stress of keeping them together. Why? Do you want one?"

Adiya shook her head trying not to look disgusted. As a child she hated the cigarette smoke her father would leave behind in the house. She developed lung problems due to the smoke. But she hated the cigarettes themselves. Adiya rubbed her forearm her finger tracing a faint but still visible cigarette burn. She looked up at Hera who kept her gaze on the horizon and eyed the also fading bruise on her neck.

How did she do it? How could she take the beatings and insults and still stand proud with her head held high? Cigarettes alone weren't enough. They couldn't be the only thing keeping her from stopping.

Hera noticed her staring from the corner of her eye, she looked back down to her with a quizzical glare,"What the hell are you still doing here? My husband called for you, didn't he?"

Adiya was taken aback by her response. Hera's glare chilled her blood but it also made her seem more attractive. Her intense brown eyes were just so..beautiful. The word itself wasn't enough to describe them.

"He-he did." she stuttered.

"Then what are you waiting for? You're his little whore, you've got a job to do."

Adiya took a step back unsure to follow directions or not. Was this a trick? Hera's face turned red with anger,"Go!"

Not a trick. An order. Adiya scampered off toward Zeus and Hera's temple. She never thought she would hate her life more than she did now. As she walked through that bedroom door Zeus waited for her on the bed. When he took her once again she cried. She told him it was because of the pain but she never specified what kind.