Elysium's Love Triangle (19 page)

The conversation is
far from something to smile about.

“So you don’t love Daniel anymore?”  He asks. 

I can’t answer.  I feel horrible.

“So you do,” he interprets my silence.  “Then why did you just pick me?”

“To save us both from death,” I answer, still smiling for the people.

He just keeps on grinning. 

His tone betrays his real feelings, “My life . . .”

I remember the drawings.

“Oh well,” he carries on.  Suddenly the
light seems
to return to his voice, “I suppose that being fake-married could be fun.”

Before I know it he has swept me up into his arms.  The cheering seems to grow louder. 

“What are you doing?” I laugh.

“
I’m b
eing your fake-fiancé!”  He answers.

I can’t believe how wonderful he
is
being about all of this.

I look into his eyes so that he knows I’m being genuine, “Thank you, Greg.”

He looks away from m
e for the first time.  His gaze
rests upon the people.

“Tonight is going to be crazy,” he informs me.

I have no doubt about that.

*

These people are wedding mad. 
I really under
estimated just how cra
zy they would
go for a ‘Goddess’ wedding.

My and Greg’s wedding, apparently, must be the best one this place has ever seen.  They give me a new dress.  It’s whi
te with a little snake design, woven in golden threads, on the front
.  The poor clothes-maker must have been busy working on it all day.  It goes down to my knees and very much makes me think of the kind of thing I might have bought for prom. 

I am assigned a ‘helper-maid’, the best one they could find I am told.  I am glad to see that it is the girl with the pony-tale, her name is London.  She doesn’t have her monk style clothes on now.  Instead she is wearing a pink c
otton dress.  This is because it is her wedding day
.  The boy I set her up with has been her crush forever, she told me.
  His name is Robert.
  

We have a ceremony where she pledges her a
llegiance to me by cutting her hand. Then she lets
the
blood fall on some tree.  It is
slightly too bloody for my taste but I am trying to let the people here do as they see fit.  I am beginning to think that I could use my status as a ‘Goddess’ to maybe change a few things around here.  The sacrificing of people must end for sure.

I don’t dare suggest these c
hanges yet.  I
n a few days I will mention them
, if I don’t manage to escape before then
.

London
gives me some news.
B
efore I change into my wedding outfit I must bath in the Lake of Impurity.  I don’t really want to do this but she says
that
it is important to her people.  She leads me outside
and I suddenly feel how cold it
is.  Really
,
this is not a day for bath
ing in lakes.  The lake
is just
at the back of the plantation.  W
e don’t have to walk far.

Unluckily the whole town seems to have turned up for it. 

Of course they have, it’s part of the ceremony.

A horror comes upon me.  They expect me to bath with all
of
them watching?  There is no way I
can be naked in front of all of these
people.

“You know what
London,
I a
m suddenly feeling quite ill
.  Perhaps we should do this some other time . . .” My protests are probably not going to succeed but I give it my best shot.

“All the more reason to bath,” London tells me happily.  “The Lake of Impurity gets rid of the pre-wedding sickness.”

There is no way I am going to get out of this.  I don’t usually appreciate getting to wear clothes.  From now on I really will.

All my people, once again,
are looking at me.  They are sing
ing some chant
.
I don’t
understand the words at all
. 

I look at the lake.  It is glowing in magnificent moonlight now and stretches out as far as I can see.  It really does look rather inviting, it would be more so if the weather wasn’t freezing.  I bend down and put my hand into the water.  It is absolutely freezing.

There is no easy way to remove your clothes in front of this amount of people.  I wonder at how my life went from being normal to this in just a few days.

I listen carefully to the chant.  It’s probably Latin.  A small girl
,
dressed in white robes
,
is lighting candles all around the lake.  I see the hope in her eyes. 

They believe in me
, the
s
e
people.  To them I’m a Goddess who has finally come home to save them. 

They do not deserve to have their dreams crushed.  I almost wish that I
could
lead them to this paradise they so wish to find.

“They believe in me,” I say it aloud, trying to gain strength from the words. 

Ethereal would not be one bit afraid of doing this.  She wouldn’t care that these people are looking
,
because she
has
power.  She also wouldn’t be one bit bothered by the cold water.  In fact, she probably would’ve done the ceremony while I was standing here being terrified.

I have to be her
now.  I have to stop freaking out
.  Mind over matter.

I take one
last glance around at the lovely people
gathered here.
Then I close
my eyes.  I slowly pull down the zip at the side
of my
dress.  My thoughts are on Greg.  At least he isn’t here to see this.  He is getting ready for our
wedding
somewhere else.  This gives me a small bit of comfort.

I make an attempt at smiling. Then I
step out of my dress.  Suddenly I find
that
my eyes are open again
.
I am walking towards the water.  Removing my underclothes is, for some reason I can’t fathom, ea
sier than removing the dress
.  There is something that seems quite natural
about undressing,
now that I’m entering the water.

I don’t know why but the mood takes me to keep walking deeper and deeper into the lake.  My willing it to heat up, strangely, seems to work
. B
y the time my body is mostly submerged it’s quite warm
.  Suddenly, forgetting about the people,
I get the urge to swim.  The water is getting more wonderful by the minute.  It cannot be my imagination that it is heating up at a steady rate; it’s warmer than a heated swimming pool now.  I’m sure
that
it was freezing earlier. 

There are so many stars in the sky tonight.  They remind
me
of the night
that
I sat with Daniel by the fountain.   He is the thing that keeps pulling me away from these people.  He is the thing
that
I can’t learn to leave behind.

If it wasn’t for him I might actually stay
here.  This realisation takes me
by surprise.  These people have really grown on me in a short amount of time.  It is like they are
my
people.  Something, inside, tells me that this is
where I’m
meant to be.

I’m distracted from this thought because the chant changes.  It’s in Latin again
,
but it is livelier and I can’t say
that
it isn’t a nice change from the last dreary one.  I breathe a sigh of relief; this part of the ceremony must be over.

I swim back to the edge
of the lake. 
Lond
on gives me a large towel. 
I hastily wrap
it
around myself.  I’m surprised when three teenage girls from the crowd, all with distinctive auburn hair, undress themselves and swim to
the middle of the lake
.  I wasn’t told about this
part of the ceremony.  These girls
are
also offered towels upon returning.

Everyone in the crowd seems to be looking at the one with the scar on her neck.  I’m suddenly curious, it’s as if everyone is waiting with bated breath for what she’s about t
o say.  It’s kind of nice not to
have all the attention on me.

“The words of the old prophecies said that only the Great Goddess could make warm the waters of the ice lake.”  She glances at me before continuing, “This girl has done so.  She is truly our queen from the depths.”

*

I have no idea how I made that water warm
.  No one told me
that
I was supposed to do it either.
I guess it was a test, from
my people
,
to see if I was their Goddess truly.  London told me
,
after
wards,
that the lake has
been freezing cold for a hundred years
.
Even on the sunniest day it would remain unchanged.  I have, quite unwittingly, performed a miracle.  Everyone is now completely convinced of my credentials, everyone except me.

I can’t be evil incarnate.  If I was I would surely know.

Then how did I do that?

It is a complete mystery. 

Riley laughed at me when I told him this
.  I need to ‘accept myself’ at this point, he argued
.
  He told me that I will probably find ‘my true self’ very soon.

Then h
e asked me about Greg.  He has figured out that the boy blabbed about the weapon.  He knows that he can’t suggest killing a
Goddess’s
husband.

Riley congratulated me on my cunning.

He will make me pay for it, he promised.

I didn’t like the smile he gave me after this
. 

I warned him
not to go near Daniel. 

Once again, as he does, Riley changed the subject.  He told me that he has power over
men
’s minds.  This is how he gets all of thes
e people to follow him.  It has also helped him to run
this cult
, for
all these years
,
without anyone on the outside figuring it out. 

He asked
me just how many times I think I’ve seen him in the last year.

Most days, I answered.

He revealed to me that I’ve only seen him twice i
n reality.  His power is brilliant. 
H
e primarily uses it to fool people
.
  Trickery is his favourite thing.

He uses his power a
s a weapon.  He wishes that
I would do the same.

I didn’t know what he meant.

He has power over men’s minds, he repeated. 

I am the one who has power over men’s
hearts
. 

My power is
the ability to make
them love me.

This is why boys fall for me so easily.  This is why these people follow me so willingly. 

I refused to believe it at first.

He gave me evidence.  Why exactly would ten boys just offer themselves up for marriage to me?  Why would Daniel be willing to d
ie for me when he’s only known me for a few days?

I didn’t want to believe it.  Unfortunately it did seem to make sense.

It is my power, without a doubt, Riley told me.  He urged me to begin using it to my advantage.

I told him
that
I would never use my powers to hurt or control anyone.  This didn’t seem to please him.

I think back on all of this as I get ready for my wedding now.   

London and I are in a small room
, at the back of a
chapel
,
which is lined with flowers. It is fitted with one of the few mirrors in this village.  Many girls have seen themselves for the first time in this
mirror, London told me earlier.  I
t is said to have magical prop
erties which bestow blessings upon
the marriage. 

She hands me a
bouquet of flowers now
.