Muse Unexpected (11 page)

“Considering the situation you were in, I think you got a great deal,” Sophie said.

Aletheria put down the desert menu and called the waiter over. “We’ll take two sundaes and I’ll also have a slice of that delicious lemon cake your grandmother makes.” The waiter left and returned quickly, placing two large sundaes in front of the women, along with a large, heavily frosted slice of lemon cake. The slice sat on a plate coated with powdered sugar.

“That is my story. I serve the Vasilikós of Greece and Italy, of which your grandmother Georgia is head of.”

“Silli what?”

“Good God. Hasn’t your mother even explained about the Vasilikós? There are nine of them? The original Nine Daughters established the Nine Vasilikós?”

Sophie shook her head.

The Oracle put her spoon down. “Why do I even bother to think that simple tasks like Muses 101 would have been the first thing they covered with you. Have they even explained the gods and how they fit into all of this?”

“Cut them some slack.” Sophie spat back, not meaning for it to come out as rudely as it sounded. “I’m sorry, but you have to stop tearing my family down.”

Aletheria eyed the girl. “May I?” the Oracle asked, pointing to the seat next to the girl. Sophie shrugged a ‘help yourself’.

Aletheria moved next to Sophie. “I’d like to gather some information, but it requires me to touch your hand.” Sophie offered her hand to the woman and Aletheria took it in her own and turned it palm side up and began tracing the lines on the girl’s palm. The Oracle’s brow furrowed. She brought her face closer to Sophie’s and looked into the girl’s eyes.

The surface to Aletheria’s eyes became blank and shone like a mirror, reflecting Sophie’s eyes back at her. Sophie’s mind was freefalling into the infinite depth of the reflection as she watched her eyes change colors and glowed with an inner light.

“The light you see now is normal for a Muse, but there is something more to you,” Aletheria remarked.

Sophie was beginning to feel uncomfortable, as she saw stars twinkle from the reflection of her own eyes.

“I see the stars, like the elders,” Aletheria said. “I see the heavens. How is this possible?”

Sophie ripped her hand away from Aletheria, breaking the connection, but the Oracle remained in her trance. “You are no ordinary girl,” she said. “You are no mere Muse.”

Aletheria sat back in her chair, her eyes now rolling back into her head. She threw her hands up, cradling her head, moaning in pain. “Someone is trying to stop me from knowing. Someone is trying to hold something in place to blind my sight. Who would dare?” Aletheria asked as she brought her other hand back to her head. “It’s a spell, a veil of obedience. If I can focus…”

Sweat began to bead on Aletheria’s brow, causing her drawn face to smudge and slide off in long black drips. She dragged her hands down to her throat and Sophie grimaced as Aletheria’s entire body seemed to smear and become even more grotesque, resembling the blood and guts Halloween masks that terrified Sophie as a kid. Globs of black ink dripped like mud, exposing the pure white canvas of Aletheria’s face. She no longer had a mouth or eyes, each of these holes dripped thick, tar-like ink, reminding Sophie of poor animals caught in an oil spill. Aletheria grabbed the tablecloth and ripped it away from the table, somehow managing not to send the numerous dishes flying in all directions. Taking the cloth, Aletheria covered her face as even more ink seemed to surge and bubble from within her.

Sophie didn’t know whether to applaud or get some help. Aletheria moaned one final time then slumped back in her chair, breathing heavily.

“Please excuse me while I fix my face.” Within a blink she was gone and before Sophie could react Aletheria appeared again, restored to her original state.

“I know everything and I need to have a talk with Georgia,” Aletheria said, throwing several large Euros onto the table and standing up to leave. “On the way, we can cover the gods.”

They walked out of the café onto an uneven sidewalk made of huge slabs of marble. Sophie watched as Aletheria’s flowing skirt whipped around and changed itself into a pair of English riding pants and the bodice became a crisp, white, long sleeved cotton shirt. The sleeves rolled themselves up and the once-stylish heels became a pair of riding boots. The Oracle shook her head, causing her long tresses to fall away, leaving a crisp pageboy haircut. “When it came to hair, the 1920’s was my favorite decade. It was such liberation from the Victorian era.”

“You said we would talk about the gods?” Sophie said.

“Yes…” Aletheria answered. “First, they aren’t gods at all. I want you to try and picture the world during its infancy. Humans needed something to help guide their lives. Now, I’m not going to get into a theological discussion, since I have limited time today. So, when I say God, take it at face value. So, up in the heavens, God decides maybe a single god option is too complicated for his beloved children to grasp. And I’m guessing if God could be tired after creating the world, he was at a point of needing a vacation. He created the Heavens and the Earth and although I’ve never had the blessing of children myself, I am told raising children is an exhausting adventure.”

“God gets exhausted?” Sophie asked.

“Well, not the way you’re thinking. So in his infinite wisdom, God calls some of his most trusted associates to his side. They go by many names, but we’ll call them Angels. He said, ‘I’m going to take a few days off, and while I’m gone I want you select few to watch the children.’ The Angels agree and God and the Angels come up with this idea of creating what is termed as a polytheistic society, meaning a society with more than one god. So, instead of saying the world and life are based from a single supreme being, we’ll let the children believe there is one god responsible for making the crops grow and another god responsible for love and another god for the seas. Are you following me?” Aletheria turns to look at Sophie.

“It seems like a lot of work so God can take a vacation. Are you sure this is the way it happened?”

Aletheria nodded. “Use whatever title you want. God needed a break. Don’t you sometimes have to take a break when you’re working on a long assignment from your school?”

“Yeah, but…I’m not God. Can we sit for a second? I feel like I’m going to pass out,” Sophie replied.

Aletheria walked over to a small park and Sophie sighed in relief, as they both sit down on a bench where the Oracle handed Sophie a bottle of water that drew itself into Aletheria’s hand.

“Thank you,” Sophie said. “So a god for each item to explain why things are the way they are.”

“Exactly. So with God’s help, the Angels establish themselves as these minor and major deities and God goes off on his vacation. Doing what, I have no idea, although Greece does have some of the most magnificent beaches. Now I know a lot of people believe Angels are these perfect beings who only do good, and for the most part that is what they were, at least until they started taking their role as gods a bit too seriously.”

“I bet I can guess what happens. In the drama club, there was this one girl who always got the big parts and I always got stuck as stage or prop manager. Last spring she broke her leg during rehearsals for
Hello Dolly
and I was the understudy, so they gave it to me.”

“And how did that make you feel?”

“Fantastic. At least until she convinced the drama teacher it would be so incredibly “forward thinking” if we had a Dolly Levy in a wheelchair.”

“It must have been a horrible production. So glad I missed it. So, like you, the Angels find out they like the adoration, being worshipped, having temples and statues created to honor them and the roar of the crowds. In response to this newfound power, they created a whole world hovering between Heaven and Earth, called Mount Olympus. Olympus is where these new gods ruled and sat in judgment of mortals and themselves.”

“And let me guess,” Sophie interrupted. “Like
Clash of the Titans
, they were total divas. Always walking around, saying this is my hairbrush and don’t use my pancake makeup. Like that girl in my drama class.”

“You
do
have a way with words. Yes, there were constant battles between the gods, which are bound to happen with continual power struggles. More importantly, they discovered mortal love, and not only love but also sex with mortals, was like a drug to them. And it changed them. The more mortal love and adoration they had, they more they desired. A god could and would go from one mortal obsession to another, not concerned about what it left in its wake. Every loathing trait in the human race had been taken up and multiplied by ten in these powerful beings.”

“Okay, so you’re telling me the gods, these Angels, were complete and utter sluts, sleeping with anything that had a pulse. Ew, now it’s getting kinda gross,” Sophie said.

“The result of the mating between gods and humans was the creation of a type of beings caught between two worlds. They had one foot in Olympus and one foot on Earth. They were labeled the Demigods and forced to remain on Earth. These poor beings did everything within their power to hide their Olympian heritage.”

“Why?" Sophie asked. “I would think having ties to Olympus would be beneficial. I mean…if I had this sort of ‘get out of jail free’ card, it would be pretty hard not to use it. Wouldn’t it be like instant VIP status?”

“During the early years that may have been true, but as the reign of the Olympians went on, the Demigods were considered expendable. Remember, the Olympians had enough problems dealing with their own kind. Adding another layer of superior beings meant having to share the love of mortals, and that wasn’t something they were willing to do. As the Olympians’ addiction to mortal love grew, the adoration of mortals wavered because Olympian cruelty became unbearable. The line between love and hate is easily crossed and the gods discovered a similar rush could be derived from terror and fear.

So, as you can imagine, the Olympians fell out of favor. Temples, statues, anything created to show respect for these gods were destroyed and, like addicts who’ve been deprived of their drug of choice, the Olympians became enraged and inflicted even more harm and pain. Unable to fight the gods, the mortals attacked those less powerful, the Demigods, who from no fault of their own were guilty by association.”

“Georgia referred to herself as a Demigod,” Sophie said, half to herself, half to the Oracle.
Oh my God. Is that what I am? Some sort of freak of nature?

“Yes, she is and so are you.”

Aletheria took a sip of her water, replacing the cap back onto the bottle. “The Demigods were hunted down and killed by both those from Olympus and those from the mortal world. Some didn’t even have a chance, not understanding the power they had or choosing not to use it, in complete defiance of their Olympian heritage. Some would rather die than toss a single lightning bolt or do anything that proved their Olympian father or mother gave them anything of value. Their Olympian family had turned their backs on them. The Demigods, in turn, rejected anything having to do with Olympus and died for it.”

“It’s so sad,” Sophie said as Aletheria peeled away the label of her water bottle.

“Bodies of mortal and Demigod alike were strewn across the land, each marked in a way that their souls could not pass through the underworld and were damned to an eternity of misery in the river Styx. Eventually, the cries of his children, both human and Demigod, reached God’s ears and in a fury, he tore the Olympians off their false thrones and demanded their immediate return to him."

“Well, it was about time. I mean… a vacation is one thing. Abandonment is another. Makes you wish they had some sort of children's services or something like it on the god level?”

“Some of the Olympians returned to God, but others remained. Some, like the Muses, stayed to serve a sort of self-inflicted penance. Although not guilty of the cruelty inflicted by their fellow gods, for the Muses, not doing anything made them guiltier. They had the blood of so many on their hands. Some gods managed to escape God’s wrath and remained for other, darker reasons. Because they did not return as instructed, those Angels are the Fallen Ones, damned to an eternity of living among those they both despised and desired, but not as gods. They are powerless, shadows of their former selves, waiting for their opportunity to rise up and rule the earth and the human race. As for the remaining Demigods, they scattered to the ends of the Earth in an attempt to find the peace and security they searched for. The Muses and their Demigod descendants are the last defense from the Fallen Ones. Never be fooled into believing the Fallen Ones aren’t a threat. They are immortal and time is on their side. There are also rumors that some are regaining their powers, which is a terrifying thought.”

Sophie sat for a moment, completely numb and then spoke. “I’m sixteen years old. Do you know what most girls worry about when they’re sixteen? Getting a pimple the day of school pictures, wondering if she will be asked to go to the spring fling, worried they didn’t study enough for the next trigonometry exam or not getting their reading done for English lit, because who the heck wants to read
The Great Gatsby
when all you need to do is watch the movie?”