Zephyros

"My head," Zephyros groans, pressing his hands to his temples as he rolls himself into a seated position boosted by his elbows. The room spins as he regains his focus, his eyes finally landing upon Ganymede again. "What was that even?"

Ganymede stares blankly up at the ceiling, still flat on his back, his eyes wide. "I have no idea what that was, Zephyr. Upon my honor. I thought all the memories in that reel were yours."

Oh, right, Zephyros recalls. He remembers now. Ganymede, in an effort to prove he meant no ill will, had offered to share all the memory records bearing Zephyros's name. As there hadn't been much to do to pass the time locked away, Zephyros had readily agreed, though every time he'd tried to ask about Zeus's changing personality, the atmosphere had grown cold and Ganymede refused to talk about it.

Thinking back over the last of the memories, the ones that seemed to put the viewer into the very mind and moment of the memory owner, only one had belonged to Zephyros. The others had come from Ganymede and – Zephyros gulps – Eros himself. Even being free from his enslavement to Eros, the fear of crossing his master's personal boundaries dies hard.

"I had no idea I was missing any memories," Ganymede says, his voice small. "I think I –" he trails off, perhaps realizing he doesn't want to share whatever revelation he'd had.

Zephyros barely notices the silence hanging between them growing longer as his thoughts dwell upon the memories. That last morning before Eros had diverted Apollo and his fates, he'd been so happy. It's hard to stop the bitterness from rising up in his chest.

"Idiots, the pair of you," a gentle voice says, carried through the room on a waft of rose-scented air.

They startle at the sound, gaping stupidly without direction in search of the source. Zephyros's eyes land on a faint spot of color at the keyhole in the door. As he watches, it begins to glow with a purplish light, bleeding into reds and blues before refracting into a full rainbow spectrum upon the floor tiles. The lock clicks and, with a long creak, the door swings open.

Zephyros's face splits into a huge smile as Iris flutters into the room, the door closing behind her. He stands up, weak in the knees, his wings spread to keep his balance. "Iris! My hero! You came to rescue me?"

She greets him with a hug and presses a kiss to his cheek before pulling back and lifting her eyebrows. Her warm brown eyes move between him and Ganymede, now struggling to get to his feet, then lift to the ceiling as if she's praying for patience. Focusing upon them again, she claps her hands before rubbing them together. "Right then, to business. The memories you two have just witnessed were harvested by Hecate and if you had been paying attention, the reason she took them ought to be clear enough."

Zephyros shrugs, glancing at Ganymede. Ganymede, on the other hand, holds Iris's gaze. He seems to have caught her drift.

"You mean the plan? Hecate, you, Aphrodite, Artemis and Nemesis. You're all in it together and if those of us who witnessed pieces of it hadn't had our memories taken, we could have messed it all up?"

Iris purses her lips thoughtfully, nodding in consideration. "Yes. That's a simplification, but pretty much correct. And now … it's time for the big showdown. We determined it was best that you go forward to meet it with your memories restored. Hopefully, you'll be able to see the bigger picture."

"And Eros?" Zephyros asks, the name sour on his tongue.

Iris waves her hand dismissively. "Eros personally requested Hecate hold onto his memories of the ordeal. He has never entirely approved of the plan. It wasn't until he took up with Psyche that he had an accurate measure of his own power, after all. We used him, true. But for the sake of all life, love is the only force that can alter the course set by the Fates, that can create an alternate path where there wasn't one before. I know, Zephyr, you have trouble reconciling your faithfulness to him. You have always been faithful to love, even before your service to Eros. He offered you shelter when you needed to be sheltered. He prevented you from becoming corrupted. Apollo grows stronger under trials and tribulations; you do not. I'm not saying this to judge you. You are precious to me and I am so glad you were spared the pitfalls that could have ensnared you."

Scarcely are her last words out, a ghastly shriek blasts the quiet from the room with such force, the very walls tremble. His ears ringing, Zephyros stares dumbfounded as Iris clasps a hand to her chest and disappears in a burst of rainbow mist, her lips mouthing what looked like my lady.

It takes a moment for him to realize Ganymede is trying to get his attention, yanking the side of his tank top.

"What's that?" he shouts at Ganymede, his hearing returning as Ganymede grimaces and rubs at his ear.

"The door," Ganymede says. He steps forward and tries the knob. It turns. He pulls it open. "Now's your chance to escape."

His mind still spinning from the memory trip, Iris's revelations and sudden departure, Zephyros hesitates at the threshold. He looks back. "What about you?"

Ganymede wrinkles his brow, his teeth worrying his lower lip. He folds his arms across his chest, holding onto his biceps. "I – I have to stay put. I don't know what's going on downstairs, but trust me when I say it'll be worse for me if I put myself between Zeus and Hera."

Zephyros lifts an eyebrow and cocks his head as if to say what have you really got to lose?

Ganymede blows a few stray hairs out of his face, tapping his foot impatiently. "Look, the door's unlocked. I need to think about it. Process some shit first, okay? You shouldn't be here. So scram. Go and be the big brave god that caught Apollo's fancy."

"O – kay…" Zephyros gets the sense that Ganymede is hiding something, that he's about to embark on a whole other plan that he doesn't want Zephyros to interrupt. The vibes pouring off him scream kamikaze mission. "Look…" Zephyros rests his hand on Ganymede's shoulder. "You've been there for me enough times in the past. I just want you to know …" He hesitates only a moment, sensing Ganymede's desire to cut him off. "He's mad about you. If he was forced to choose – without any outside pressure – he'd pick you. You have more power than the Olympian gods know, you have a dominion and it is over the heart of their king."

Ganymede rolls his eyes, a flush staining his cheeks. He knocks Zephyros's hand off his shoulder and gives his chest a shove, making Zephyros take a step backward over the threshold. The corners of his mouth turned up, Ganymede's mouths the words: I know before shutting the door in Zephyros's face.

XxxX

Zephyros descends the winding tower staircase in a breeze, stretching out his essence beyond the confines of a mortal body. Fear doesn't grip him so sharply in such a state, thoughts and emotions don't strike him as deep. He isn't sure what his next move ought to be, but as dust from the ceiling gets caught up in his drafts, the support columns groaning as cracks appear in their bases, he considers bolting for the exit. Apollo would know better than he what to do next.

He hesitates at the doorway to the courtyard when a voice behind him draws his focus.

"I need to … I don't make mistakes … No. That isn't true. I do. I hide them. Silence the witnesses or reverse an accusation. I've fallen into a trap of my own making – no longer recognizing my own faults."

Athena stands at the base of one of the columns leading to the staircase he'd just descended, only her bearing doesn't match her typical warrior stance. Her dark hair, normally swept up neatly in a high Grecian ponytail, sticks to her neck in several places and stands upright with static in others. Her armour straps are crooked and as she paces before the staircase entrance, talking aloud to herself, she nearly drops her battle helmet from where she carries it tucked under her arm.

Zephyros pulls himself back into his mortal form without thinking. He can't help it. He'd spoken to Athena only yesterday. What could have occurred in such a short timespan to dishevel the goddess of wisdom and strategy? At this thought, a crash sounds from behind the throne room doors, followed by shouting voices and sending another shower of dust falling from the ceiling.

Athena doesn't appear to have noticed the disarray or his presence as she clutches her helmet to her chest, continuing to talk to herself. "It is only a minor issue. All gods …"

"Do you want to tell me about it?" Zephyros asks, without sparing a thought about whether it's stupid of him to interrupt. When she startles and meets his eyes, he continues before he can talk himself out of it. "I won't judge you."

Her eyes narrow and she straightens her back, her grip tightening on her helmet. She seems to assess him as if she had X-ray vision, finally relaxing her shoulders and sighing. "No. You wouldn't. But if our positions were reversed, I wouldjudge you. Harshly."

A glimpse of a familiar lobby flashes in Zephyros's mind's eye, vanishing just as quickly. He jumps on it. "It has to do with the Lotus Casino, what's troubling you."

Athena's eyes flash dangerously, her features drawing up in rage and just as quickly, falling. Her forehead creases, her eyes growing wide. Her helmet shimmers and vanishes from her arms, startling her. She looks down at her empty hands. "I am supposed to be the goddess of wisdom," she says, her voice quiet. She looks up again at Zephyros. "When I pass judgement on others, I stick to the objective facts. I do consider circumstances, but seldom emotions. I don't have the capacity to keep a broader outlook. I ought to. I think at one time I did." She wraps her arms around herself like a self-soothing hug. "Part of me is missing. I know it sounds ridiculous, but …" She trails off again, her eyes drifting to the throne room doors as if seeing through them. "Zeus. I have been his helm, his general, his counsel in strategy since the day I was born. I never questioned him. He is both my mother and my father. They are one and the same now. Metis sacrificed her identity in order to create enough noise inside his brain that he would split his own skull to silence it and enable me to escape. She poured every last ounce of herself out in order to be absorbed by him. Now, I can see he is cursed. He broke the laws of the Fates when he absorbed her. She can no longer bear him a son and so the prophecy of that son usurping his father, providing a new power source for the next age cannot take place. His own power has grown unstable, corrupted. He'd rather take all of existence down with him than forfeit control. I cannot abide it any longer. It makes me question if I have been tainted by this same corruption, if it isn't the very thing that keeps me from seeing myself objectively and prevents me from expanding my wisdom beyond my current shortfallings."

"Athena," Zephyros says, feeling very much as though he is interrupting. The way Athena has been speaking feels more as if he's witnessing her arguing with herself than talking to him. "What shortfallings? What happened that made you think about the Lotus Casino just now?"

Slowly, her gaze shifts from the throne room doors back to Zephyros, her eyes softer than he's ever seen them before. "It may already be too late. Right now in that throne room … I must … I need to make a choice. Stand beside Zeus and fulfil my duty or … or own up to my mistake. I cannot see a positive outcome from either path and so … I will do what he will not. I'm leaving. It may be the only chance I have to stand on my own."

Before Zephyros can push for any further explanation, golden flames erupt all around her and she vanishes along with them as suddenly as they had appeared, leaving him shaken and alone before the throne room doors. The absence of shouting voices behind them makes the silence that falls that much more formidable.