Memoirs of an Immortal (The Immortal Series) (12 page)

He looked around the room and finally to my face.

“So? What do you think?” He asked with a smile.

“Think of what?” I replied cautiously.

“Of me? Of course! I’ve been waiting to see you for so long.” He continued.

“And… who are you?” I think my question hurt his pride because he recoiled a bit.

“I have been with you since the beginning.”

As he spoke he turned over his hand to expose his palm. He had created a small ball of fire, which whirled around in his hand. He then flicked the small orb into the fire pit in the middle if the room.

“Now do you remember?” He asked.

“Pro?” I murmured. I had thought that I would never meet him again.

‘How does she know him?’
I could hear Eirene’s skepticism.

Here next to me was a man taller than anyone I had met before, with a short beard, his whole persona was kind and giving, there was no trace of deceit.

“Here, they call me Prometheus. I will be here to guide you all through this difficult process. I will be your confidant and your friend. I can only imagine the fear and confusion you must all be feeling, but I promise you that with me here, I will ease all of your anxieties. With my words, I bind myself to you all.” He winked at me. “Well then! We should be going.” He stood up and began to walk towards the door.

“What of our parents?” Eirene bit out. “Can you tell me anything about them? Are they ok?”

Prometheus turned and walked right up to her. He placed his hand on her head and began to stoke her hair.

“They’re fine. You don’t need to worry for their safety, ok?” He looked for her to acknowledge what he said. She finally nodded and I could see her shoulders relax.

‘So they must be ok’
.

I smiled at hearing her reassure herself. I was happy to think my parents were safe, but I still felt uneasiness, as much as I trusted him, I didn’t trust this place.

“Come on girls, today it the first day of your new lives. At least be a little excited!” He had said eagerly.

Prometheus closed the door to our room and reopened it. There where the hallway was, was now a large vast garden. The soft golden rays lit up the doorway inviting us out. He ushered us through and closed the door behind us. We walked down a few stone stairs, to find a large fountain.

The water was sparkling like little diamonds as the sun reflected off of it. There playing by the water was Aegle and more that looked just like her. Each of them, were a different colour. She waved at us and nodded with a great smile, the rest followed her action. The sun was high in the sky, but it wasn’t too strong, rather the rays feathered the air and the warmth hugged our skin.

Prometheus cleared his throat trying to gain out attention, which was now taken by our new surroundings.

“They are nymphs. They were created by a mere want of a god, so you can imagine how many have appeared. Because of the sheer number Zeus has banned any gods from creating anymore. He then assigned the ones that have been created to various aspects of nature. Anything in nature that you can think of, they are responsible for. The rest are servants to us. Demeter and Artemis, closely monitor them. They are beautiful are they not?” He asked as he pointing at the radiant creatures that bathed in the sunlight by the fountain.

The sky was clear blue and the clouds were not merely above us, but below us too. The air was thin and the sun seemed different, even the smells were strange. Prometheus had walked up ahead of us.

“This is Olympos.” He stretched out his arms, clearly showing us the area around us.

“How do you hide it from everyone?” I asked.

The more we walked through the path he led us down, the larger it felt. There had to be a way to hide the enormity of this place.

“Olympos?” He asked. “We are far above the earth. This is a floating island, which is just over Mount Olympos. The island itself is mystical. It changes and adapts to what we need. It appears to be alive and senses what we desire from it, as you will see with time. It hides itself from the eyes of the mortals down below.” Prometheus leisurely escorted us to our destination, enjoying the weather and smiling at the sun.

As we walked through Olympos, I noticed that the plants and trees looked the same as back home, but somehow I could not shake the feeling that they were different. I had fallen behind mesmerized with the nature of the place.

“Everything here is at its truest form. The beauty of nature can only be seen here.” He said smiling proudly.

“I don’t doubt you, but I have seen beauty down below as well.” I countered.

He leaned in close to my face.

“Yes, you are quite right, Psykhe. Beauty doesn’t not only belong to the Gods, but to the people as well.” He stood tall talking in a large breath,

“Let us go! For those two wait for no one.”

The stone path that we had taken from the palace had eventually turned to dirt. We continued to walk through a vast field of rolling hills, when we came to a row of large Cypress trees that lined a spacious home. We finally reached an enormous opening through the trees, a path was there leading us to a courtyard.

The courtyard itself was of considerable size. To one side of it, there was a storage building. There were weapons and armor strewed everywhere. Enormous axes were attached on the wall, while various swords were placed on racks. It had looked like a training ground for soldiers.

We walked through the courtyard to the building. There we met a young man. I stared at him not knowing where his hair and beard ended. He was a mass of untamed blond hair, wild and uncontrolled and he looked quite irritated.

“I’ve been waiting Prometheus. I do not have all day for this.” His voice was harsh and he hissed some of with words.

“You’re right Phobos. I’m sorry next time I will be on time.” I could tell Prometheus was just placating him.

“Come!” He cried, his icy blue eyes commanding us to follow. “You will start your training here, with my brother and I. I’m Phobos and he’s Deimos.” He pointed to a man who sat brooding in the corner, sharpening his sword. He was the opposite of Phobos, with his sleek black hair and clean cut. His face cold and ridged, as he glared at us.

While Phobos had appeared to be uncultivated and savage, his brother seemed controlled and calculating. The only thing that was similar was their eyes.

They both had ice cold blue eyes. With one look you would feel their intentions. Deimos stood up and without a word, ushered us to the courtyard. Prometheus still with his happy disposition stayed behind, so he could observe us.

“You!” Deimos pointed at Eirene. “You come here.”

Eirene walked over to him.

“What is your weapon of choice?” His voice was low and husky.

“An Axe.” She replied.

“Fine. Then go and retrieve it from the weapons’ room and come here when you are done.”

Upon her arrival, he instantly began to spar with her. Sparring would have been an understatement. It was more like she and he were in the middle of a real fight. His attacks were relentless, but Eirene didn’t give way. Whatever he gave her, she was able to withstand.

“You all must observe every move you see. We will not be explaining it to you. Here, you will be taught to fight. There are no words in battle. Here, you must only think and do. Do you understand?” Deimos words were wise and similar to those of my father.

“Enough!” He bellowed at Eirene, she stopped in mid attack. “The rest of you go and get weapons that you have been trained to use and come back here immediately.”

We each found what we needed. Agape always used a spear, Zoe a bow, Eva two sickle swords, while I took two massive kopis. He and Phobos trained us, one on one, adapting themselves to our abilities. It was well into the afternoon, the sun beating down on us, sweat dripping down, as our bodies ached.

We must have trained for hours, when Deimos told us to go wash up. When we returned to the courtyard there was a large man standing and speaking to Prometheus. He was as thick as the two brothers put together, his sheer size was dominant and fearful. He had his black hair slicked back into a braid. His beard was kept and braided and across his right eye, he had a fairly large scar, so that’s where the brothers got their eyes from. He only had a left shoulder plate and shin plates as his armor and had a large broad sword, which was sheathed on his back. He stood with his arms crossed.

“Do you plan to stare at me for long, little one?” His voice resonated through my ears. “Have my sons training been too hard? Because if it has not been I will make sure it will be.” He began to laugh. It was a heavy low laughter that came straight from his belly.

Now before I say this part of my story, you must know that at that age I was quite cocky to say the least and I hardly feared anything. I guess it’s only normal when you are young and naive.

I walked up to him with determination in my eyes.

“You must be Ares, the one who sent that thing I fought a few years back.” He nodded.

“Yes, I am and yes, I did send it.” He studied me for awhile. “You look much like your father at his age and I hear that you are not too bad at fighting. But from what I see you still lack in skill.” He said gruffly.

“Perhaps if I had better teachers, I would have achieved more today than just sweat.”

To this day, I still shake my head at my disrespectful behavior, but I had a death wish, hoping I could end the pain in my aching heart and end my life. At that time, I still naively didn’t understand who I was and what I had become. At that moment Ares’ icy blue eyes narrowed and was about to lunge at me but everything froze. The air grew cold, the wind stopped moving and sounds around me ceased to exist, replaced by a deafening silence.

I looked up and saw that Ares had stopped in mid stride with his hand up in the air to grab me. I quickly looked over to my sisters, their eyes wide anticipating Ares’ reaction. They also were silenced, as though they were dead, frozen in time. Eva moved next to me and yanked my arm.

“Move stupid!” She pulled me to where they were standing, making sure I was far behind them hidden from his view. That’s when everything suddenly came back to life again.

Ares’ hand only grabbed air. He looked around perplexed, wondering what had happened. He searched around quickly, when he finally found where I was, he looked at me and he yelled for me to come to him, but Prometheus interrupted him.

Prometheus looked at our direction and shook his head at me. I felt shame and lowered my head.

“Ares, we must be going now. You know we can’t keep Themis waiting. She may be kind, but can be ruthless if she feels slighted.”

As Prometheus spoke, he jerked his head for us to start moving towards the entrance of the courtyard.

As we made our escape, I turned to Eva and looked at her in amazement.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know! I just know I was able to do it and thank the gods I did. What were you thinking? He could have ripped you to pieces.” Eva seethed.

Prometheus walked ahead of us for awhile and then turned, he faced me, his teeth showing as he growled. He jerked my arm and pulled it behind my back, pain rippled through my limp. I bit my lower lip, not to yell out. His face was inches from mine, his eyes were red, his happy disposition replace with pure anger.

“Have you any idea what kind of wrath a god could have?! You insubordinate little girl! I realize that it is your personality to test those around you, but you need to realize you can’t test the gods. They have no patience for those around them, let alone an insignificant individual like yourself! You, all of you, better learn quickly, that right now, it is best to be seen and NOT HEARD!” Prometheus roared.

He grunted as he released my arm. He had hurt it enough that I couldn’t move it, but it was my pride that was damaged the most. I looked over to see the faces of my sisters and realized I had brought shame to our family.

That was the moment I humbled myself, realizing I was no one’s queen and that no one was going to protect me from myself anymore.

“You now have brought great harm to your sisters. Understand this, whatever you all do, has an impact each of you.”

Prometheus then turned away and proceeded to walk towards our other destination. My arm must have been broken, the pain was excruciating. Agape was the only one that would walk next to me, trying to comfort me. The rest simply ignored me.

We reached a beautiful simple home, wild flowers grew everywhere and grape hyacinths filled the grounds in front, while a beautiful climbing vine with rich purple blooms covered the stone home. The area around us had an air of calmness. The air was heavy with heat. The grass was tall. A slight wind picked up, making the grass rustle. I had seen at least ten butterflies fluttering around. Each had its own vivid color. The house overlooked a quiet stream. Next to the stream was a large willow tree, its long branches slightly caressing the water.

Prometheus had walked us up to the door and told us he’d be back when it was time. I was about to apologize when Eirene spoke up.

“Don’t even.” She hissed. “This is hard enough as it is. None of us even understand what is going on exactly and here you are making things worse. You better try to make this easier for us Psykhe! We haven’t even seen each other in years and trust me, we had done just fine without you. What were you thinking? Why? Because you were a queen it makes your behavior all right? I’m the eldest, remember that, Leonidas is dead and you are not in Sparta.” She wouldn’t even look at me when she spoke her harsh words. “Just do one more stupid thing Psykhe and I’ll be the one to make you regret it.” She hissed.

Upon hearing his name, my heart burned with an agonizing pain. I could feel the tears creeping up, a hard lump began to form in my throat.

“Do you all plan on staying outside the whole time arguing or are you going to present yourselves?” A slender woman appeared from behind us. She held her head high. The air around her was noble. She had short wavy hair that was covered by a long silk shawl. Her warm brown eyes had a welcoming effect that calmed my sisters down. She smiled slightly and walked passed us, opening the door to her home.