Beauty of Thebes

Chapter 19: Don’t Come Back

“Girl, you’ve got quite the nerve to look at me straight in the eyes? Do you want to waste your life away?” as he spoke, his fake shell of a body melted away steadily.

Eutostea remained impassive.

“I know now what you think of me. That’s enough.”

“…”

As he observed the voice of the woman he thought a stranger, a sense of dejection and familiarity washed over him.

“…Wait a minute.”

“I’ll offer myself to the temple. Eutostea, the Third Princess of Thebes… her name will be offered as a sacrifice of sincerity. I won’t speak what happened today, nor will my sisters, so please, don’t be angry at Thebes.”

Apollo’s lips tightened. His shell had almost melted. He could not speak properly; his vocal cords were broken.

“Please don’t come again. Don’t even dream of me,” Eutostea said bluntly as she grabbed hold of the candlelight burning in the dark night.

“Eutostea,”Apollo muttered her name in his tongue without a sound.

The face of the third princess standing with only lit candlelight in the serene darkness gradually became opaque.

***

Apollo, who’d been dozing off, leaned back against a chair in Mount Olympus and opened his shut eyes. He was silent, dazed, unable to think.

Then, a thumping crash of iron echoed.

Hestia sat in front of a fire that never died out and looked at it with a poker face.

“Apollo, you had a good night? Did you enjoy it?” said Hestia, smiling gently.

“…Hestia… let’s not talk about it,” Apollo answered brusquely, brows furrowed tightly as if in pain.

Long ago, he had fallen deeply in love with that goddess—even begged to be hers desperately only to be rejected in shameful humiliation. Since then, life with Hestia had been somewhat difficult. But he’s more mature now, more so than his father, Zeus, and he could live peacefully with her. Their relationship up to this point was strained, but it was getting better. At least he liked to think that it was. He’ll fool himself to think that way.

He did not immediately get up from the chair. A heavy heart droned over him while he was unable to describe the heavy feeling swirling in his heart at this moment.

“You’ve been in and out of the human world as of late,” said the v*rgin goddess.

She rarely talked, but today, she had much to say.

“Ah. That rumor,” Apollo responded with a sigh.

“Isn’t it fascinating?” Hestia let out a soft laugh, “Our brothers prefer to make contact with mortal beauties. Artemis and I talked and we thought it fascinating. You and that woman have so many differences that it’s almost godly. What made you keep coming back?”

Apollo didn’t reply and said, “I didn’t know Artemis was close to you.”

“I’m a pure soul and we get along well. But be careful. If you obsess over things blindly, it’ll only lead to poison and torture.”

“You’re trying to admonish someone who’d just woken up,” frowning, Apollo revealed his displeasure.

Hestia worked on the furnace. Like sleet, flames fluttered and took form into the shape of a deer. She turned around, looking at Apollo with a cant, steady gaze. Many of the male gods coveted the v*rgin goddess deeply so. She was pure and pure was something they desired to taint to their hearts’ content. Unfortunately, they knew she was untouchable, someone they couldn’t touch.

“Apollo, don’t let others see what lies in your heart. There are eyes watching.”

“…”

Apollo recalled the face of that woman.

His heart tightened.

“What? Are you hurting? Look at that distorted face of yours.”

“Nonsense. You’ve gone cray staring at the flames for too long.”

Apollo left the scene with a dismal chuckle.

A golden chariot appeared.

Hestia watched his fading figure, her grays glinting.