Chapter 325: Of Lovers Past

16th May 2013, Sayre Manor

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

As the both of them left the mansion, I wanted some time to think about things as well. From what I understood, the UN was probably going to start moving with the superhuman accords soon, trying to bind anyone with superpowers to their selected government. I teleported to a beach and started walking on the pier.

Suddenly, a voice interrupted my thoughts, "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?"

I nodded without looking to the source of the voice, "Yes, it is."

"Yes, it's nostalgic. It's been a while Medusa."

I stiffened at the name; very few people knew of this identity. I turned towards the source of the voice. It was a short woman, with kind brown eyes, and long auburn hair. I didn't recognize her, but there was a deepness in her eyes, a smoldering intensity, a warmth, that was familiar yet strange.

Immediately, like a bolt of lightning, I knew who this woman was. But it was impossible, "Hestia?"

The familiar smirk on her face was enough proof that my guess was correct. How was this possible?

(Hestia POV)

Hestia, Goddess of Hearth, had lived in mourning for thousands of years. She grieved the loss of her one and only love all those years ago when her family's blind thirst for power made them trust a malicious mage that tried to enslave the remnants of Atlantis. Because that was what they were, really, remnants of a once mighty civilization that sunk into the sea destroyed forever.

The worst thing was that her siblings didn't grasp what Medusa – and even if Hestia knew that her name was the Morrigan, she would always be Medusa to her – had done for their sake. She had saved them all from their own foolishness, from their own greed. The Olympians would have been banished into the realm of an Elder God or a Demon, which would have no doubt ended with either their death or enslavement.

And yet, Medusa had built an entire dimension, an entire realm to save them, defied her own patron, Death, a being of Endless power, and was punished for it. Oh, how Hestia cried in despair over her death. Her sadness slowly evolved into anger, and finally into a smoldering rage, that she did her best to suppress for the sake of her family. And yet, it didn't take long for the Olympians to forget to who they owed their lives. Zeus returned to being an ineffectual ruler, and the new realm of Olympus was divided once more into sub realms for each of Kronos' sons, and again, the three Elder Gods started to wage some sort of cold war against one another, with gods taking sides of the conflict.

The amount of pettiness was absurd. Medusa had designed Olympus to be able to observe the mortal world and interact with it indirectly. Those were the laws of the gods, enforced by the universe itself, with very harsh punishments should they be broken. The main thing is that contact must be initiated from the mortal world not the other way around, and the response depends mostly on the method of contact and the strength of the god being contacted.

A prayer to Zeus might allow him to send some favorable wind to a sailor, or to Poseidon might allow him to calm the seas slightly. A sacrifice might allow them to kill them to bless a mortal or declare them to be their champion, but that was in the unlikeliest of cases, and it did help them immensely in helping the Pantheon flourish when the Roman Empire rose.

Truthfully, Olympus was lucky in the fact that they were known to exist in memory, and thus were still being prayed for centuries until Christianity started spreading. Even then, the gods of Olympus were not forgotten, simply turned into stories and myths. Other gods did not have such luxury, and Hestia shuddered to think how much damage they could cause should even their names be uttered by a mortal. Names have powers after all.

Even though she was prayed to many times, Hestia rarely did respond to any contact beyond the instinctive comforting hearth. She was too caught up mourning her lover, that she observed succumbing to her own grief as well. She became more detached, more ruthless, and less caring. It was sad for Hestia to see it, especially as she was constantly called by Fate to serve role while she barely had any time to grieve.

Hestia herself was different. Life as a being of energy tended to cause that. She was more detached from the mortal world. She didn't mourn their loss as she once did, the goddess of the hearth thought that it could have been a reaction to losing her beloved. But the rest of the Olympians were also changing slightly. Their way of thinking, their priorities, were so inhuman, that Hestia could say without a doubt that they had all changed.

Everything went as usual until Zeus decided to send a champion of his to kill Medusa once more. Well, she went by a different name back then, Circe, Hestia believed. Medusa had taken over her students' names after she died, as a way to honor her legend.

The God of the Sky had no idea who she was, only that she was some witch that had killed legions of Romans when they tried to burn Medusa's temple in Korinthos, which they had built together. As predicted Medusa slaughtered the arrogant champion in seconds, embarrassing Zeus once more.

Wanting to show up their brother, Poseidon and Hades sent champions of their own, to no avail. They ended up transformed into animals and sold as pets to a few merchants. It was somewhat amusing to watch the frustration on her brothers' faces in front of the entire court of Olympus.

That amusement died soon after when Zeus declared the witch Circe to be an enemy of Olympus and sent visions to every priest, every champion, and everyone to hunt down the witch Circe, causing Medusa to end up fleeing Korinthos, the home she had built with Hestia, and move elsewhere with a different face. Hestia was sure that her beloved could have taken care of them, but simply didn't want to risk the city's destruction. Instead, she simply hid their temple, their home, under a powerful enchantment and left. Even now, the city was still standing, a testament to their love.

However, that was the breaking point, the last straw. Hestia knew that it was irrational, that it was out of centuries of anger being suppressed, but the Council was still trying to hurt her beloved even after they had existed in different dimensions.

And so, Hestia released her burning rage and challenged her siblings, who were surprised, to say the least that their gentle elder sister would fight them this viciously. Luckily, Hestia had learnt a few things from her lover, and defeated all three of them, destabilizing the political landscape in Olympus.

She was now the queen of Olympus, and she started her rule by forbidding contact with the mortal world. The two worlds are supposed to be separate, and contact would cause nothing but grief. And so, with fewer 'miracles', the faith in her pantheon diminished, and Christianity started spreading all over the world.

Hestia ruled Olympus with a gentle yet firm hand. The Olympian council still existed, but it wasn't a fixed position, and it wasn't restricted to the Elder Olympians and their children. And so, slowly, life started to flourish in Olympus. Gods started to look at what they could do in their dimension, and not the mortal world, creating new creatures, nymphs and the like, building endless forests of immense beauty and architectural wonders. The Golden Age of Olympus flourished under her rule, for more than it could have under the control of any of her brothers.

And Hestia never married, never took another lover, no matter how much her family pleaded with her to have an heir. She did not accept any of the potential suitors, men and women alike, that tried to seduce her. She simply observed her beloved Medusa's life, as she did her best to move on, and she did.

The Queen of Olympus wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad about it. It broke her heart to see Medusa learn to love another, even after centuries of grief. Oh, Hestia loved the fact that the light in her beloved's eyes started to shine once more, even if she didn't approve of the cold woman that she chose to love.

Yet, the woman, Selene, was good at balancing Medusa's personality. Where she was cold, Medusa was warm. Where she was detached, Medusa was caring.

Their relationship grew for thousands of years into a small contentment, and Hestia wanted nothing more than to take Selene's place in the relationship. And yet, she was stuck in this place, as an observer but not a participant.

And yet, for all the fact that Medusa learnt to love once more, she was still a slave to Fate and Time, forced to fight endless battles, taking endless names, to be part of history, which always ends in tragedy. After all, Death is inevitable, and mortal lives were awfully short.

And when Medusa's time loop ended, when she was finally free, she was forced to deal with one tragedy after another, forced to fight a battle against a being so far above her in power that it was laughable, and yet she persevered, that was until Wanda Maximoff changed the course of time.

The council of Gods was shaken. Those who existed on a multiversal scale were banished and locked away, and the universe was locked down. The cosmic entities and their council chose to ignore the warnings of Entropy's defection and left Medusa to clean up their mess. And she did so well, trying to do it. She fought the entity head to head and tricked him into falling into her trap, she rose up and chose to resign her role as Death's champion, and she defeated a celestial while ascending into becoming one of her own. She even fought against the abominations that were enslaving the Asgardians and defeated them. And yet every victory had a taint of defeat. It was sad, it was tragic, and yet her beloved did not give up when many others did the same to her.

It wasn't until Selene betrayed Medusa, that her beloved had her own soul changed without her accord, and had been turned into a different person entirely by a simple event, that Hestia knew that her beloved needed her help. For all her calm exterior, Hestia knew that Medusa was crying a river inside, hoping that the hurt and pain would go away. And it broke the Queen of Olympus' heart to watch it happen.

Oh, how she hoped she could help, that anyone could see the clear pain hiding underneath the surface of apathy that she projected, that even Medusa didn't understand. And for the first time, when Odin destroyed the realm of the abomination, where the dimensional walls were down for a fraction of a second, Hestia knew that she had a chance.

The Goddess of the Hearth was able to make a small link to the mortal world, taking over the mind of a mortal, just to see her beloved. She knew that it was temporary, that Agamotto's spell could notice her presence and send her away anytime, but she needed to at least speak to Medusa, to comfort her.

Immediately after having a mortal vessel, Hestia teleported to her beloved, who was slowly walking on a beach. She smiled as she took in the woman's sight for the first time in thousands of years. The scrying simply was enough to capture her beauty, the way she felt. Oh, she was different, very different, and yet she was still the same at her core. This was a woman with a will of steel and yet filled with so much love and so much sadness.

Hestia smiled and walked next to her beloved, "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?"

Her beloved nodded without looking, "Yes, it is."

"Yes, it's nostalgic. It's been a while Medusa."

The moment she said the name, Hestia knew that she had Medusa's attention. Her beloved turned and even in a different vessel, she knew her identity immediately, "Hestia?" she murmured more like a prayer than a question.

Hestia smiled warmly at her beloved and nodded. Yes, they were together once more.

As usual, I generally post four chapters a week, on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. (The month is over, so I'm going back to the usual schedule)

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