LYSSANDRA

  ‘’Where did you find the puppy?’’I asked Hermes as he was throwing to the bed more dresses for me to wear. I must admit, the fabric was perfect. I never imagined myself wearing something so rich.

  I waited for an answer while petting the golden puppy with its blue eyes, who was resting softly on my lap. For a split second, Hermes turned with a frown lip to the puppy’s presence. As if he wished to be in his position.

  Decades passed, and he simply visited me, giving me dresses and scrolls and sometimes, telling me about the current world I could not reach. I tried to hold my emotions in check when he appeared, trying not to give him more ideas of playing with me. But each time, I could see him getting more impatient with me and my mind. And I wondered what he actually wanted to see from me.

  ‘’Found him under the ste[s Olympus few days after I moved you here.’’He explained.

  ‘’I watched it for a few years and noticed that he wasn’t aging, so I thought that it might keep you company when I won’t be here.’’

  I grabbed the pup by his upper elbows, and the small creature let out an adorable yawn.

  ‘’What name shall you give it to him?’’Hermes asked and moved close to me while his bag held the scrolls I told him to give me.

  I turned back to the pup.’’How about Argos?’’ I asked.

  Hermes chuckled.’’Like the giant?’’

  He thought that every thought I had was about him. Maybe he was the only one I was facing for the past two decades, but that didn’t mean I didn’t fall into a rumble of stories from the scrolls.

  ‘’I read that a great king had a dog like him,’’ I explained to the god. ‘’ He fought against Illium, and he returned after a rough twenty-year voyage back to his family and slaughtered every enemy.’’

  The god hummed as he was listening to my story.

  ‘’He was a fool; he could have had all the immortality and goddesses he wished and still wanted to return to his mortal life.’’

  ‘’Maybe for love?’’I asked foolishly, but I knew that it wasn’t the right answer.

  The pup barked and licked my nose. My smile grew wider and pressed him closer to me.

  ‘’I think I can call him Pup’’I said with a giggle.

  Hermes replied with a disgusted look. So Pup it was.

  Then, he showed me the rest of the scrolls he carried on his back, and my gaze shifted to the necklace he was wearing on his neck.

  ‘’Is something the matter?’’ Hermes asked.

  I did not speak, and then, Pup began growling from anger and jumping behind my back.

  ‘’You look less angry with me now’’ He leaned closer to me with his fingers tracing my curls.

  He was a strange God, the one who was standing in front of me. All the power he had, he tried to make me like him. But do not force me.

  So, I pushed him away and walked close to the window where the beautiful garden was in my view. So many flowers and plants that I could admire. But none of those colorful beauties were poisonous. The image of Paris growing a garden with hemlock turned to my head. How perfectly white and deadly the field was all around me. And even when I rested on that cold night, when he left, my body was dressed in poison.

  I tried to shut those memories from my head, and I turned to Hermes again.

  ‘’So, tell me what’s happening in the world?’’

  Learning news about the people outside of Olympus from Hermes made my mind more at ease, as if I couldn’t get more insane.

  Hermes sighed and flew closer to me.

  ‘’Minoans are gone.’’He said dryly.

  My chest tightened from those words.

  ‘’What do you mean by-’’

  ‘’There was an eruption from Santorini, the smoke and chaos destroyed the civilization’’He explained with a small smile. How could he enjoy something like this?

  I suppose sending souls to the underworld was something that he enjoyed. But people, children, women are dying and their bones are disappearing…

  Just like I did when-

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  ‘’What’s the matter, dear?’’Hummed Hermes and his index finger touched my chin and turned me to his sight. ‘’Afraid to listen to the truth of the cruel world you have left behind? It all happens because of you.’’

  What?

  ‘’What do I have to do with it?’’I said and rushed around the room, and Hemres followed me by flying around the ceiling.

  And then, he fell in front of me in the form of a tall man with a citrine shade of skin and long flammable hair.

  My eye began to dart from that moment as I could see he was taking Paris’ form.

  ‘’If he didn’t fall for you, Eris wouldn’t be free, and chaos, discord wouldn’t run all so loose.’’

  ‘’No, no, don't turn it on me,’’I said, pointing the hand at him, and Hermes returned to his true form. ‘’ I am not the villain of this story,’’

  ‘’So what, you are, the hero?’’ Hermes’s brow arched.’’Will you stop her?’’

  What kind of question was that? How could I stop Discord itself? None actually could. They trapped her once, and she was free after that. No, I was not a hero. And glad that I wasn’t. But I hated what the Fates were planning for me.

  ‘’Get out’’I commanded him.

  Hermes laughed once again. ‘’Come on now, dear, what will you do about it? Will you fight or be just like my idiot brother who left you defenseless, you watched your poor friends die, leave you.’’

  My entire body was in pain from all those words. Try to forget, Lyssandra, try to forget. But I couldn’t forget.

  ‘’Why are you doing this?’’ Why was my voice shaking?

  I lifted my gaze to him. His pleasing expression as he had a great height and power that could make me kneel in a split second. He didn’t.

  Not yet.

  ‘’Don’t turn everything on me now, Lyssandra’’ He whispered, and my eyes moved back to the center of his torso where his necklace was hanging. I tried to remember if I had read it in one of the scrolls he gave me three years ago, but then, Hermes moved my chin up once again.

  He was so close to me that I could smell how sweet the scent of crocus was coming out of him, making my head heavy.

  Lyssandra, stop falling for stupid tricks like this.

  ‘’I must go, I need more souls to collect’’He explained, and with that, he flew away.

  Alone again. In one beautiful room with all the gifts a god could give me. I should be happy, but I knew what he wanted in return. I turned back to Pup, who was hiding, and patted his golden crown fur.

  A pet for a pet. I imagined what Hermes would have said when he saw the small dog at the steps of his home. But there was no time to feel pity for myself.

  I started taking out each scroll, new and old. Lying them to the ground, I could see each pattern that I have made for the past decades.

  And then, it happened again.

  My body was shaking, feeling new parts of me growing from my body, while I couldn’t even see. But whatever was happening, it made Pup tremble in fear.

  And my voice began speaking without my will.

  ‘’It was strange, actually. When the Fates cut my thread, I expected the path that the priest taught me would be my end. The burial where people will wail and weep in all black when they will put two coins in my closed eyes and dirt on my cold body. After that, the Guider of souls would calm my loved ones' hearts by taking my soul far from my dead end. He would guide me with a calm compassion to the river Styx, where all the oaths were created and destroyed. The mighty ferryman would give me his hand and guide me with a price towards the river and the rivers after mind and remaining emotions, my memories, would be gone until I would be found on Trial. The three sons of Zeus would test my past and my heart, judging me while the God of the underworld watched the trial with his beautiful Queen at his side.

  It would have been strange to judge me for something that I would have forgotten. Something that would have caused me so much pain and anger that I couldn’t feel or remember anything about it. But with those rules, they would show me my path. A reincarnation to Elysium, a frozen immortality, or eternal punishment.

  Tell me now, Lyssandra, what is my destiny, now that I have been gone so long? Because everyone went to Elysium with one swift stroke of the Herald’s powerful staff, but I am still here. My old body is dust by now. I could still feel the worms moving on me, trying to feed on my remaining bones. And yet, you got a gift now. Maybe you hated that god, but he loved you. So much so that you can see the future and have knowledge about everything. Even when forgotten souls try to speak to you. And now all trapped like a prize, losing your mind slowly.

  Maybe you weren’t so different from Apollo, I mean, I hate you, even if you helped me countless times.

  Do I actually hate you, though? I don’t blame you for my death, Lyssandra, that’s what I still know from my insane mind. But are you trying to forget everything that you did?

  Everyone you ever met?

  I guess this is the reason you can’t see me or listen to me. How would you describe my voice, the color of my eyes? Your mind probably thinks of me as someone who only wished for adventure, but is this the truth, or another lie you created to stay away from any close relationship?

  What’s my name, Lyssandra? Lyssandra, tell me my name, I can’t remember…’’

  I finally managed to breathe as I felt tears dripping from both of my eyes. My mind felt numb, but I bit my lower lip enough to make it bleed and focus.

  I looked down at the floor, where the scrolls were now all out of order and all painted red.

  ‘’Not again’’I muttered and checked my arms, which were wounded by a piece of broken vase next to me. The scars on my arms were written with deep, forceful words that were shaking as I was writing them when I wasn’t in control.

  One simple word was finally discovered in truth.

  Caduceus.

  So, there was the first clue to release Paris. I finally took a deep breath and rested on the floor with Pup jumping on my stomach. He licked the remaining blood of my now healed skin and let out a laugh as I remembered that for a moment, I couldn’t control my body.

  And I couldn’t stop wondering who it could be that was trying to speak to me.