Category: Greek Mythology

Rating: M

Couples: Athena/Thanatos, Ares/OC, Apollo/OC

Warnings: AU, Blood (read: war), hints of Lemon

Chapter: 1

Copyright: Characters & places © By Whoever owns Greek Mythology, Plot & OC´s © by me

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Leander was a man who should have little problems being happy: he had a beautiful wife and while he was no King, he had money to spare. Despite his riches he was humble, and regularly brought sacrifices to the nearby temples. Once in every two years he would travel to the great city of Athens to bring sacrifices to the great temples there. And his loyalty to the gods had been repaid generously: he had 3 healthy sons, and a fourth child was on the way. Leander, lion-man as his parents had called him when seeing his hair as he grew up, it being thick and golden as the manes of a lion, had little reason for grief and he knew better than to petition the gods for more than they had already given him.

But he desired a daughter, so that she may keep her mother company when he was away on business. A little girl, beautiful and sweet, that would behold him in adoration. And so did his wife.

Rhoda herself had been the oldest child of a merchant and had been his only daughter. She had missed the bond that came between sisters, her brothers having to grow up quickly to ensure her father had a proper heir should he pass away. At first her father had intended to send her to the great temple of Athena Thanateia – it had once been the Parthenon, before the mighty goddess had lost her virginity and thus her title of Parthenos, the Virgin, and she had turned it into a temple for both herself and her husband Thanatos, the God of Death – but an elder priestess had turned her down, saying she would serve the goddess better if she wed.

That night, his sleep was restless. He was walking up to the temple of Athena on the Acropolis to offer his sacrifices when the statue started to move! The ivory woman reached down, snatching him up. He was frozen in fear as he looked into eyes the color of polished steel.

"Always you have honored me." Her voice was deeper than that of any woman he had ever heard, but not unpleasant. "I have heard your plea. Once you wake, travel to the outskirts of your village, do not hesitate or delay. There, under the olive-tree, you shall find a basket with two girls. Raise them, and treat them as if they were your own. But give them to no man or god as wives, let them not become servants or priestesses. I rejected your wife, but in exchange I want those girls once they are old enough. Once they have reached marriageable age, send them to this temple."

She put him down again, but before he could wake the sky above him turned black. Crows appeared from everywhere, closing in on him with glowing eyes. They screeched in terrible voices and for a moment it seemed as if something much bigger flew with them.

"Do not disobey me, Leander, for you will not live long enough to regret it."

Leander shot up, panting in cold sweat as the voice of the goddess echoed in his skull. Rhoda woke too, and tried to sooth him. He quickly explained what he had dreamed off and she, in her wisdom, agreed it was best to hurry to do the goddess' biding.

He called for his slaves and hurried to the olive-tree at the outskirts of the village. There, as the goddess had told him, was a basket. He carefully lifted the lid as one of the slaves held the torch above his head and peeked inside. Two babies softly fuzzed as the cold night-air entered their warm nest. They were identical, he could tell as much: a soft tuft of black hair already covered their heads. They were warmly wrapped in cloth so finely woven it truly had to have been god-made and he saw silver necklaces resting around their necks.

"Oh my!" Rhoda exclaimed as he carried the basket into the house. "Oh, look at them!"

"I know." He put the basket on the table and carefully lifted one of the children out of it. "They are perfect."

"What is that around their necks, father?" His sons had woken in the commotion, and his oldest had spoken first.

"Necklaces, I believe." Rhoda had picked up the other girl and was carefully pulling the fabric down from around her. "Here, take the one of this girl."

Her oldest obeyed. "Look." He gasped and lifted the smooth silver into the light: a thin band of silver, big enough to fit around an adult woman's neck, held a finely crafted owl. "An owl, the sacred bird of Athena herself."

"It is only fitting." Leander looked from the necklace to the girl he held. "It was she who gave us this gift."

"There is something written on it." The youngest boy softly said, clutching the tunic of his older brother with one hand and pointing up at the necklace with the other. "On the backside."

"It's a name." Leander's firstborn waved the slave with a torch closer and squinted. "It says 'Eirene'."

"Peace?" Rhoda softly said. "What does the necklace of the other one say?"

A slave carefully removed the identical silver band and handed it to his master with a bow.

"It says 'Andronicia'. Isn't that the female form of Andronicus meaning 'Conqueror of Men'?"

"It is." Leander looked at the sleeping infant in his arms. "But if it is the will of the gods, then so be it. I'd rather butt heads with mortals than with the Great Olympians. Eirene and Andronicia they shall be named, as was surely Athena's intention when giving them those necklaces. Put them away in our vault, and come dawn, go to the weaver down the road to buy cloth for our daughters' clothes." He said the last bit to the foreman, who was in charge of the other slaves.

None of them saw the two birds sitting on the tree outside, looking into the house. One was a deep-brown owl, her silver eyes shining in the light of the moon. Next to her sat a crow, whose black feathers seemed to absorb what light fell on him and only his eyes revealed he was not merely a shadow. They too shone in the light and were like polished steel.