The Claiming of the Children (The Veil of Death) (3 page)

∞

Zeus heard the words spoken from his son, “No!” he roared with anger at the discovery that his son’s allegiance had been to his mother, Hera. “Join those that I could not save because of what you and your mother have done!” He shouted out his rage and released all of his son’s stardust to Earth.

Particles of oranges, reds and hues of cold blue, shone brightly and for a moment it looked as if the very soil was alight with flame of fire but all too quickly the stardust dimmed into a lighter shade of brown as it became Earth’s dust.

Electrical storms lit up the sky and thunder crashed down onto Earth as Zeus continued to unleash an angry barrage of thunderbolts and lightning.

His anger scorched the surface of Earth and set aflame many a tree, meadow and plant.

Eurynome commanded the elements of water to douse out the flames. “Have you lost your senses?!” She screamed at Zeus. “You are killing all that our children are now a part of.”

Tremors rippled throughout the Universe.

Earth spun upon her axis.

She travelled vast distances across the time known to Earth’s mortals as years, decades, centuries and eras.

Mortals lived and died… died and lived.

And… the claiming continued.

Within the Universe and Mount Olympus, all but an intake of breath… a flickering of a flame had passed.

Eurynome looked down in desperation at the sight of her daughters - the last three guests to be trapped within Hera’s party.

The barrier that Hera had crafted began to crumble and disintegrate.

∞

Each sister held the hand of the other and found that they could all but stand frozen - unable to move as their bodies set and tightened around their life-force of immortal energies.

They stood as statues for two mortal days and when they were able to withstand the pain from the severance of the Universe, they moved.

A stir of emotions did they create.

“WOW!” A young girl shouted. “You’re for real.” And she laughed with the crowds of sightseers and clapped her hands in admiration.

A middle-aged man gave unto one of the woman his woollen full-length overcoat and asked. “I am right aren’t I? You were depicting The Three Graces?”

Another man and then a woman offered up their full-length coats to the other two women.

The first of the sisters, Aglaia
[xiii]
stepped forward.

“It seems that our reputation has preceded us.” She laughed with delight and joy at the attention that they were receiving from the mortals within the twenty-first century.

Bright lights from hand held devices flashed and shone.

Questions rang out.

“You must be Charity the beautiful one!”

“Can we have your autograph?”

“You can bless me any day of the week!”

“Your skin is soooo perfect. How do you do it?”

“Tell us your secret?”

Aglaia used her immortal abilities – whilst she still possessed them - to gift the mortals with what they desired the most: Youth and Beauty – Fame and Fortune.

The second of the sisters, Thalia
[xiv]
looked around at the amount of people gathering around her and her sisters. She also clapped her hands in delight to see such energies of laughter, merriment and festivity within the auras of the mortals. “Come sisters…” she said, “… Earth is now the hostess and thus to her creatures we must attend.

Thalia used her immortal abilities – whilst she still possessed them – to ensure the flow of the Festivities of Life: Laughter, food, song, dance and wine never ran dry.

The third of the sisters, Euphrosyne
[xv]
looked at the mortals and realised that they did not see or hear the ghosts who shared the earth with them.

And so, Euphrosyne used her immortal abilities – whilst she still possessed them - to offer comfort and tranquillity to the mortals and their ghosts.

∞

“They are using their abilities wisely.” Eurynome whispered to Zeus as she looked down upon the scene with a mixture of pride, sadness and loss.

Each Grace still possessed immortal abilities because of their Unity of Three. But now that they were a part of the Earth, that Unity would eventually become severed and their immortal abilities would be lost to them. The knowledge of that particular severance was only known unto Mother Earth.

Eurynome continued to watch as her daughters shared their gifts and abilities with the mortals before turning her attentions unto the barrier.

Pieces of it were caught up within the branches of the surrounding trees and the threads sourced from the Immortal children’s memories and the Fabric of Life, looked no more than discarded rags of tattered and torn material.

She closed her eyes and commanded a breeze to stir up the threads and when they arrived into Mount Olympus, Eurynome collected them up so that they were safe within her own energies and auras. “I vow to protect your memories,” she whispered, “and when the moment arrives they will be returned to each and every one of you.”

She looked over to Zeus who was still over by the window saving the children’s stardust. “The party has ended. Hera must now be punished.”

Using her senses, Eurynome sought the scent of what Hera could never hide; the venomous sting of her Jealousy that spat and burnt anything that it came into contact with; the stench of decay that pierced into lightness; the sourness of envy’s acidity that was capable of eating the essence of compassion.

But her senses found nothing - not even within a faded memory. “There is no creature that is capable of concealing all that you are!” She shouted down to Hera and concentrated her senses onto the things that were not made up of muscle, tissue, bone, blood and flesh.

She smelt wood, water, rocks, pebbles, sand and roots – plastic, metals, liquids and material and suddenly her attention was drawn to a structure made up of glass, wood and sand.

Within the colours of the sandy-creamy yellows, Eurynome sighted the tell-tale signs of the colours and energies of Hera’s vanity. “Your vanity betrays you,” she whispered. “Only you would not be content with but the colours of the sands.”

Sparks of Eurynome’s energy - born from her words – fused together and pierced into the glass and wood of the hourglass. As their shards and splinters dropped to the floor, Hera transformed herself back into the costume of a mortal woman that she had used to greet her guests, when she had hosted her party.

Within that moment, a claiming rippled throughout the Universe and Eurynome tried to get Hera to Mount Olympus before she became bound to mortality.

But alas it was all too late.

The physical form of the human body set and tightened around the energies of Hera’s life-force and she looked up toward the sky and taunted Eurynome with the sounds of laughter.

“When I die, I will forget who it is that I am… what I have done. But you will never forget what it is that I have done unto your children.”

“No Hera,” Eurynome whispered words with ice-blue coldness. “I might not have the power to claim you now that you are of mortal flesh but I can kill that flesh of yours and turn you into a Human Ghost. You will live with the memory of what it is that you have done.”

She unleashed a command to her frozen arrows of ice. “Kill the mortal woman called Hera!”

They soared into flesh, tissue, muscle and bone and settled within the mortal heart.

Eurynome made known another command. “Freeze the life-force of Jealousy!” And this time, she strengthened her Orb of Ice with the discarded threads from the Fabric of Life.

Zeus, having collected the last of the stardust, raced over toward Eurynome and struck down his trident unto the marbled flooring.

Sparks from the metal were created and he sent them flying amongst his statues of twelve Golden Eagles.

“Soar down my majestic birds and gather up Eurynome’s orb of ice. Clench it tight within your grip of yellowed talons…” he raised his voice. “Squeeze tight that grip until you feel only the particles of ash!”

Flight of feather & air joined that of water & ice and their claws cut through the orb of ice with deft and precision.

The Golden Eagles took up a piece within their talons and molten lava melted the ice… intense heat of orange and red; acid of yellow and green glowed within the white and blue of coldness.

Colours and energies shifted from one extreme to the other - hot lava – cold ice.

The lava burnt into their claws and the ice seared into their wounds, but they did not loosen their grip until all that they could feel was the soft particles of ash.

They opened up their talons and scattered it over the corpse of the woman who had an icicle pierced through her heart.

The twelve Golden Eagles did not soar back to the Universe for they sensed that they would never make it – and so instead they landed upon a chal
k
plateau
, formed a circle and encased their presence within the finest of white alabaster stone.

∞

Eurynome and Zeus watched as Hera’s ghostly image rose up and out of her mortal body and listened to the new claim as it rippled throughout the Universe:

Eurynome nodded in satisfaction. “A ghost we have created.”

But then another claim made itself known:

Eurynome frowned. “I know not of the species called ‘the empty ghost’,” she said as she turned to look at Zeus.

He shook his head to indicate that he knew not of this species either but he knew of the Void of Emptiness. “Memories do not exist within the Void of Emptiness.”

Zeus rushed to the window and sighting the last of Hera’s stardust falling down to Earth, he collected what was by now a meagre few particles, into the palm of his hand. He raced back toward the portal and sprinkled them onto the empty ghost before it evaporated into the air. “Hera feasted her jealousy with our children. Let the Void of Emptiness feast upon her now_.”

A shift occurred within the Universe and rippled throughout its Realms and when Zeus and Eurynome looked down to the Earth, they discovered that within the time of Hera’s punishment, three mortal months had already travelled.

“The severance of my daughters’ Unity is soon to begin,” Eurynome whispered.

And they watched the Graces of Three, for the briefest of moments, to learn how each had adapted to her new life on Earth.

∞

Aglaia stood atop a fine set of stone steps; one hundred and fifty in total and behind her, stood a magnificent mortal-made structure of steel and glass.

Two long banners streamed down from the roof and hung either side of the main entrance - both beheld the picture of Aglaia’s face.

Eurynome read aloud the words written upon the banners. “Charity, the Face of Youth and Beauty.”

She now listened to what the mortals were shouting out.

“Charity!”  We love you Charity!”

“I adore you!”

“You are beautiful.”

“Marry me!”

Eurynome looked down at the scene and watched as the mortals were given pots and tubes.

“’YoungSkin’.” She read aloud the name emblazoned upon these containers and glanced at the two logos bearing that same name – one positioned above the entrance of the building’s front door and the other atop the roof.

Her daughter had commanded such wealth, fame and adoration in as little as three mortal months?

Zeus in the meantime was looking into the pots and tubes. He wanted to know from which of Earth’s resources his daughter had used to craft such an invention that stopped human skin from ageing. He caught the scent of Green Tea, oranges, Aloe-Vera, water and human?

Convinced that that he had made a mistake, Zeus smelt the creams again.

But there it was… a faint scent of human skin.