The Claiming of the Children (The Veil of Death) (4 page)

“The mortal’s have named our daughter Charity but she gives them none.” Zeus said and he realised by the expression of horror etched upon Eurynome’s face that she too had smelt the faint whiff of the fragrance derived from human skin.

Eurynome said in a whisper. “Our daughter has taken collagen and elasticity from young human skin and woven it into her creams. She offers them deceit and illusion.”

“Aglaia has used her abilities to enhance only herself…” Zeus paused, frowned and then added. “Look how she consumes the energies of Ambition and Vanity as if she cannot get enough of them.”

Eurynome listened to the words that Aglaia spoke and she did not like what she was hearing.

“Listen to the words that spill from our daughter’s mouth. She uses not the energies of kindness, compassion – joy, love and laughter…” but Eurynome’s words trailed away. She saw not within her daughter’s auras the creation of the emotional energies of laughter, joy, gentleness or compassion but those of pride, vanity, anger, resentment and bitterness.

Her thoughts began to question if Hera had escaped the Void of Emptiness and flown into the body of her youngest daughter - but the longer she observed Aglaia’s behaviour, Eurynome realised that it was Aglaia… she alone, who had chosen to be the person she was now. “It is just as well that Aglaia’s abilities are about to be equal those of the mortal human being.” She said to Zeus.

∞

Thalia was in a room lit only by candles.

Eurynome and Zeus leant in close.

Zeus could not help but admire the wooden beams across the ceiling for they were bedecked with the vine of grape; red and green grapes hung down with a plump and juicy fullness.

“And there…” he pointed at silver platters overflowing with cheese and bread to complement that of the wine. Great terracotta vats were positioned along the length of the wooden counter and smaller ones in the middle of the barrel tables, situated around the room.

“Wine flows freely and abundantly within our daughter’s home.” Zeus said.

He licked his lips and added. “Our daughter uses the resources of the Earth to keep flowing the Rich Banquets and Festivities of Life.”

But Eurynome saw not what Zeus did.

The roof was full of holes – the guttering was blocked or broken and the walls had great chunks of plaster missing from them. The grapes did not hang with juicy sweetness as Zeus suggested, but with that of over ripeness. Many had been trampled and crushed into the thread-bare carpet. The bread was blue with mould and the cheese rank.

Admittedly, the mortals within the room were in high spirits; shouting, singing, dancing, laughing.

But they were also arguing and fighting.

Eurynome watched as two men crashed through the doors and out onto the pavement.

A car then sped around the corner; its tyres screeched to a halt, a blue light flashed and mortals wearing dark-blue uniforms bundled the men into the back of the car.

A small group of people who were congregated outside the home of her daughter were waving placards and banners. They cheered and whooped in delight as the car sped away.

Eurynome frowned down at the scene. “Our daughter is certainly entertaining the mortals_.”

“Your daughter is drunk!” Zeus exclaimed.

She frowned now at Zeus but remained quiet to watch as her daughter mingled with the mortals.

“Yes…” she paused, “…
our
daughter has lost the art of moderation.”

Zeus shook his head at another scene. “Why do the mortals stare deep into their drinking glasses? What are they looking for?”

“Hope.” Eurynome stated.

“But she walks beside you!” Zeus shouted down to the mortals in frustration. “Why name our daughter thus if you believe not in her existence?”

Eurynome’s attention rested now upon why it was that her daughter had abandoned the art of moderation and drank to the point of passing-out. She studied her daughter much deeper than the body that she was encased within and focussed on the words spoken, the thoughts thought, the emotions felt and the actions that her daughter produced.

She gasped aloud at what her senses had sensed and grabbed onto Zeus’s arm. “Thalia keeps the flow of the Festivities of Life…,” Eurynome faltered, “but in order to do so, she has to absorb the emotional energies that weigh the heaviest – despair, grief, sadness, self-loathing, hatred…”

“Continue,” Zeus whispered.

“They have cut her deep. But it is the mortals’ hopelessness that has cut into her the deepest.”

Zeus frowned down at his daughter. “Thalia is sacrificing the very thing that she keeps safe in order to keep its existence alive? Has not Thalia regenerated her mortal vessel whilst possessing her immortal abilities?”

“The mortal body,” Eurynome reminded him. “Can be healed but the turmoil within it cannot. Thalia drinks to numb the pain of her inner-turmoil.”

Turning away from Zeus, she cried out to Mother Earth in frustration. “My daughter eases the burden of your children but what do you do for my daughter? There are no energies at Thalia’s disposal that can protect the mortal body from within!”

“Eurynome,” Zeus embraced her into his arms. “We will find a way,” he whispered. “We will find a way to release them all from their attachment to the Earth.”

∞

Euphrosyne stood within a large room and faced a large group of people who appeared to be transfixed by what she was saying.

Her hair was cut very short and no longer cascaded down the length of her back.

“No matter,” Eurynome said, “strength for our daughter lies not within the length of the hair.”

“The mortals call her ‘Faith’.”
Zeus said and realised why that was. “It seems that our daughter is a messenger for the ghosts of the humans. She brings comfort to the ghosts and the mortals_.”

Zeus stopped talking.

Eurynome had gasping aloud.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Look at what our daughter has been using her abilities for…” and Eurynome pointed down to what awaited within the shadows of Euphrosyne’s mind.

“Our daughter has used her abilities so that she can contain the many voices of the ghosts as they speak to her. But look how Madness hovers… waiting to claim her Sanity as soon as her abilities equal that of a mortal’s_.”

“What is that?” Zeus interrupted her and pointed to the mortal woman sat in the front row, facing their daughter.

Eurynome looked at the tiny thread that had a dark inky blue and crimson liquid pulsating through it before searching the room - expecting to see more of these species - but there was only the one.

Then as quickly as the thread appeared - it disappeared into the woman. “What species is permitted to journey within the living?”

“None.” Zeus replied and looking to his daughter he realised that it was only the Human Ghosts who communicated with Euphrosyne and sharing his thoughts aloud said. “Whatever species it was, it did not communicate with our daughter.”

Eurynome, wanting to understand what the creature was, wove her senses into the woman’s breathing pattern but all so quickly, her senses came screaming back out before they were consumed within a substance as thick as tar.

“What is it?” Zeus asked.

“I smelt the essence of Hera.” Eurynome said. “And I also smelt stardust.”

She stared into Zeus’s eyes of sky blues, whites and greys that mirrored thunder and lightning.

“Hera…” he frowned, “but she is empty? Emptiness has no scent.”

“Zeus.” Eurynome interjected, “Hera is not empty.”

As they held the eye contact of the other, realisation flashed within their eyes at what they had done by casting Hera into the Void of Emptiness with particles of stardust.

“We have created a monster…” Zeus faltered.

“… and unleashed it onto the Earth.” Eurynome finished Zeus’s sentence for him.”

He continued to stare into Eurynome’s eyes and when the colours shifted into symbols, he caught the meaning of the message hidden within their depths.

“Yes.” Zeus muttered and he moulded the small silver cup into the shape of a small silver ball before handing it over to her.

He watched quietly as Eurynome etched a warning:

Choose wisely the vessel that protects the existence of our Self.

It is that that protects the memory of it,

When it is lost in what we become.

And when she had finished, Zeus embraced her within his arms. “Until then,” he simply said and stepped back.

Eurynome transformed herself into echoes and settled within the small silver ball to join the stardust of the children. She cast into Zeus’s mind;
let it be written that I am ‘The Protector of Memories’.

∞

Zeus clasped tight the small silver ball and journeyed out of the Universe and as he approached Earth’s atmosphere, he transformed into a Golden Eagle.

His beak was scorched bright yellow.

His body felt as if it had plunged into the element of water and not that of air and the feathers ruffled out of control and knocked his balance off kilter.

He curled his wings, tucked them into his body – regained control and continued to dive… faster and closer toward the surface of the Earth.

When he neared the tops of the trees he unfurled his wings, glided up and over and when he felt the moment to be exact, he uncurled his talons - released the small silver ball from his grip and placed it into the Hands of Destiny.

Zeus came to land upon the vast plateau of chalk with sloping meadows and settled himself within the circle of his twelve Golden Eagles and whispered unto all Immortal Beings;

“Let it be written that we are ‘The Guardians’ to ‘The Protector of Memories’.