Muse Unexpected (10 page)

“There are so many problems with surprise guests.” The white hand gestured towards Sophie. “If not given enough time to dry, my artwork can smear.”

The white hand set down the hairbrush and displayed its open palm, which was now dirty with ink.

“Why, I haven’t even had time to put on my face.” The voice laughed again, a thick European accent dripping off each syllable. With one quick motion the dressing table flew out of the way, exposing the woman behind it. She was dressed in a glittering, floor-length velvet dressing gown with a high collar. The woman had straight, thick black hair and true to what she'd said, she lacked a face. Three gaping holes appeared where the woman’s mouth and eyes should have been. Seeing the shock in Sophie’s face, the figure laughed, the larger hole twisting in what would have been a smile, had the thing possessed lips.

“That’s enough of the games, Aletheria. You’re scaring my daughter,” Callie said.

The pale woman turned her head toward Callie, its mouth wide open in shock. “It has been a long time since you came for a visit, child.” The thing advanced, gliding above the floor. It brought its blank face right up to Callie’s.

“So I’ll let your rudeness go unnoticed,” Aletheria said, with an audible growl. She smiled shyly as black lines dripped onto the white surface of its face. Within seconds, as if drawn by Michelangelo himself, a two-dimensional face appeared. Aletheria took a deep breath, filling her cheeks with air and, grabbing her newly drawn nose, blew hard as if trying to stifle a sneeze. With a pop, the face’s features shot out. Sophie jumped back, and Aletheria laughed heartily, each gasp of air filling the pale figure with color.

Sophie glanced away and noticed the surrounding room had taken shape, as the final scribbles to the temple’s chamber filled in, the scratching sounds of an unseen pen dying away.

“There was a time when your mother would spend endless hours with me,” the Oracle said to Sophie. “Asking me question after question after question. Oh, how I have longed for those times. Although you think otherwise, I am not your enemy, Callista, and you would do well not to become mine.”

The Oracle’s large brown eyes, accented by thick, dark mascara and long lashes, looked deep into Callie’s face. “But, I forgive you. I forgive you, my love, for out of all of the Muses I have served, and there have been many, you are my most beloved. At least for now.” Aletheria warmly placed both her hands on Callie’s shoulders. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, I think I’d like to talk to Sophia. Alone.”

Aletheria waved her right hand and dismissed Callie, who disappeared with a loud crack.

Sophie jumped back in reaction, having brief recollections of how the Oracle had treated her back in Ohio.
Aletheria
is the last person I want to be alone with.

Aletheria threw off her dressing gown, exposing a knee-length sundress. In mid-air, the dressing gown’s black lines unraveled and it disappeared. Turning on a pair of extremely high and what Sophie considered to be fashionable wedges, Aletheria walked toward two large, heavy doors and threw them open as if they were made of air. She placed the large hat on her head, pulling the brim forward.

“Come. Let’s go grab a bite to eat. You must be famished.” Without waiting for an answer, Aletheria walked out the door, waving her scarf at Sophie.

Aletheria walked in slow, measured steps, but her stride was long enough that the much shorter Sophie struggled to keep up with her. The Oracle emphasized her words with her expressive hands and arms.

“Are we still in the book?” Sophie asked, wondering how any of this could be real.

The Oracle laughed, clapping her hands.

They were walking down a sunny cobblestone street Sophie didn’t recognize, and for a moment she was overwhelmed. She couldn’t help wonder what was expected of her.

What the heck was an Oracle anyway? Can everyone see her or is she like a ghost?

A few men whistled after Aletheria and she waved at them. She shouted something in Greek, which she told Sophie meant “they would do better to whistle at their own wives.” The sun was bright and Aletheria winked as a pair of tortoise shell horned-rimmed sunglasses sketched themselves onto the bridge of her nose.

“Are we still in the book? One of these days you Muses will ask me an original question. We can’t be in the book, my dear. It’s physically impossible, because I
am
the book.”

They sat down in a café, one door down from a bakery. The air was heavy with the scent of frosted cakes, breads and baklava.

Aletheria took a sip of the bottled water the waiter had brought and glanced at the menu. Sophie’s water sat untouched as she watched the Oracle.

Aletheria sighed and put her menu down.

“You aren’t going to let me enjoy lunch until I let you ask me a million questions.”

The waiter walked over and Sophie watched as Aletheria ordered one of everything on the menu.

Oracles must burn off more calories than Muses.

“What?” she remarked to Sophie. “I am famished and I’ve waited a long time for you to come along.”

“To have lunch?” Sophie said, handing back her menu to the waiter.

“Oh, dearest, I can tell we’re going to become great friends.”

Sophie frowned and unscrewed the top to her water, taking a gulp. “Um,” she began. “My memory is kind of fuzzy about the last few weeks, but I do remember you and you weren’t
besties
with me.”

Aletheria took off her hat and hung it on the empty chair next to her. “I’m sure your mother has spoken of the new world you now live in and things aren’t”

Sophie interrupted, “Black and white. Okay, I get it. So, after scaring the heck out of me with your whole nasty, ashy skin condition and verbally beating me up with your screams of doom and gloom, I’m now expected to believe you’re someone I can trust?” Sophie’s voice grew shrill and loud. “You want me to forget our past and pretend we’re old friends. Like we comb each other’s hair, eat grilled cheeses and talk about hot guys during sleepovers? I am not going to pretend I’m interested in your thoughts on the latest boy band.”

Sophie winced as the strange burning sensation of energy began to build inside her. Like she has swallowed a sparkler.

Okay, this sucks. Nobody said anything about heartburn being part of the deal.
Remembering what had happened to the mirror, she took a few deep, calming breathes. The burning sensations under her skin lessened with each exhale.

I am in control. I will not lose control. Get your crap together, Sophie.

“All right, my dear, we’ll take this slowly,” Aletheria said. “I know you have been through more than the average person could take, especially one of your age. If I can help you understand a small part of this whole wonderful journey you have begun, then maybe I can prove to you what a true friend I am.” She slapped Sophie’s hand in a playful gesture and sat back in her chair, crossing her legs and arranging her skirt.

It took every ounce of control for Sophie not to roll her eyes as she noticed Aletheria was making sure she showed her legs in the most positive light. The Oracle purred like a cat, stretching herself in a sunbeam the moment she noticed a man walking by their table. Even the waiter wasn’t excluded from Aletheria’s attentions.

“I’m guessing your mother and Georgia haven’t explained much to you. You know, your mother was always such a frustrating girl, especially when it came to dealing with difficult situations. That one was always stumbling over herself, saying she was sorry about this, sorry about that, moaning about wanting to be free of the ties binding her to this world. I used to pray that she would grow more of a backbone.”

Sophie couldn’t help but feel insulted. “You don’t know her the way I know her, because if you did, you wouldn’t say those things.”

The Oracle continued, “And Georgia, well forgive me for saying so, but Georgia is what you Americans refer to as ‘control freak.’ Her hunger for power is constant, so driven and always planning. You just want to take whatever stick is shoved up her rump and pull it out.”

The thought of a stick being removed from her grandmother’s ‘rump’ was enough to make Sophie put her hurt feelings aside and smile.

It’s more like a large branch or a small oak tree.

“There you go. I knew I would get a nice smile out of you. Now, I am going to give you an incredible gift. During this lunch, I am going to answer any question you ask. Go ahead. Ask anything you like, as long as it isn’t about the future. Sharing future knowledge is for me to give and not to be requested.”

The waiter interrupted the two women as he sat down the first set of dishes full of food. Aletheria inhaled deeply, taking in the food’s aroma.

“What the heck are you?” Sophie said.

“I adore roasted chicken. This restaurant makes a chicken so tender the meat falls off the bone and melts in your mouth. You know the Greeks make the best chicken, with a hint of lemon they— but, there I go again, branching off into another topic, my sincerest apologies. I said to you that I am the book. Some say when a writer creates the written word a piece of their soul is given to his or her creation. Well, I took it to a higher level. Once, too long ago to even admit—so don’t bother asking—I was a very powerful Oracle. An Oracle is a sort of witch. I was known worldwide, as one temple after another was erected to please me. It is quite easy to lose oneself in the adoration of others, and once you begin to see yourself through the eyes of the adoring masses you tend to lose your grasp on reality. You really should try this rice. It is simply heaven.”

Aletheria reached for a serving spoon and piled a large amount of rice and several pieces of chicken onto Sophie’s empty plate.

“Think of me as an ancient Greek talk show host. With fame, comes great power and responsibility.” She emphasized each word with the swinging of a chicken wing.

“Now you’re just quoting the movie,
Spiderman
.”

“Oh.
Spiderman
. Wearing his tight little costume. They always get such handsome boys to play that role and that upside-down kiss. Oh, and they always have the tightest little…you really need to stop leading me off topic, Sophia. And with great power can also come great jealousy. Not from my followers and not even from the non-believers, because at the time there were so many gods to worship nobody cared who worshipped what and whom. Today, of course, is a different story. However, my ever-growing popularity did not go unnoticed by the gods.”

Sophie interrupted, with a quiet whisper, “So, they
are
real?”

“Goodness, me.” Aletheria exclaimed. “Yes, they are real and incredibly dangerous. Take my word when I say the gods despised anyone whose popularity surpassed their own.”

Great, so the Greek gods are the popular girls in school, multiplied by infinity. This keeps getting better and better. I wonder if Muses have to take yearbook pictures.

“At a party given by a king who is long since dead, I ran into Aphrodite, who was always a temperamental hag.”

“I thought she was supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world.” Sophie said, between bites.

Aletheria rolled her eyes. “Everyone used to go on and on about her beauty. She’s so beautiful. Well, let me say…her hair was a bit on the limp side and she didn’t have much of a chin to speak of, not that you could tell because she tended to have two of them. And if it weren’t for her ability to use glamour, everyone would have noticed she had a bit of a mustache and blemish problem. And her feet, oh my, the sharpest cheese grater couldn’t help those cracking heels of hers. They smelled too.”

“What’s glamour?” Sophie asked.

“It’s a sort of magic. It gives a person the ability to change and adjust their appearance in a way that makes them irresistible.”

Finally, something I can look forward to. Why worry about makeup, when you can glamour?
I knew there had to be an upside to being a Muse. Can’t find time to shave your legs, no problem. A wink of my eye and poof, I’ve got glamour.

Aletheria took a sip of her water. “So, there I was, conversing with an attractive young man from Crete who had arms I couldn’t keep my hands off of and a stomach I wanted to…well, he was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. It wasn’t until later, after numerous drinks of the most amazing wine, I found out he was an Olympian. And as fate would have it, he was also the latest love interest of Aphrodite. Like that little tramp didn’t already have at least six or seven other men she was…. Sorry, there I go again. Well, considering what happened to poor Medusa, a girl I had grown up with, I left the party, hoping I had neither caught Aphrodite’s attention nor made her angry. One thing you need to understand is that Olympians will not accept any sort of rejection, and regardless of the consequences the young god chased after me. Aphrodite couldn’t punish
him
, so what did he care?”

They don’t sound much different from the guys I know
.

“So, I’m guessing he found you, begged you to change your mind and you melted?” Sophie asked.

“Well, I’d like to think I put up some fight,” Aletheria replied. “Remember, I was
The
Oracle, after all. But then he came up with an idea, a way that I would never die or could ever be hurt by Aphrodite, nor any god’s wrath. After some discussion, among other things,” Aletheria winked, “He created a diary of sorts. Except this was no ordinary book. By writing my thoughts into it, I not only gave the book my written word but also my soul, piece by little piece, until everything I was, everything I could ever be, was now tucked safely away in the book. A book that none of the elements, nor god nor human, could hurt. I was transformed into a different sort of being.”

This is getting good.
“Something tells me there’s a catch to it. It’s never that easy.”

“There was a catch. The book was both my salvation and my damnation. It was a trap ensuring no other man could have me but this young selfish god and, as with all Olympians, his attentions soon wavered. Before I knew it, I was nothing more than an old book left on a shelf. Several centuries passed of me feeling sorry for myself, thinking I was the biggest fool there ever was, unsure how an Oracle of my standing and power was now someone’s forgotten love, trapped forever and put away.”

“It must have been horrible,” Sophie said, taking a sip of her water.

The Oracle set her fork down. “It was cruel. But, then, one day a young Muse found me. I had been left in a remote ruin to rot. The Muse’s name was Zoe. I believe she was a Muse of life, a generalist in regards to inspiration—life covers so much—but she tended to focus on second chances, giving those who have fallen from grace a shot at redemption. She found me and we struck a deal. I would no longer be bound to the young god’s keep, nor controlled by him any longer. In addition to having the safety of the book to protect me against Aphrodite, because that old hag never forgets anything, I would also receive protection from the Muses, a group of goddesses even Aphrodite wouldn’t trifle with. You have to remember, love without inspiration is not love, it's lust. I also received other ‘benefits’ from being under the Muses’ care. I got back all of my lost Oracle abilities and I also could move between the worlds: the world the book represented, this world and other Olympian realms you will soon have access to. It was like being a god and all I had to do was be bound to a life of servitude to the Muses. ”