Chapter 66
Getting a proud person to back down is hard. Getting three proud goddesses to do it simultaneously should have been impossible.
Fortunately, two of them were intelligent and had only been locked in a battle of stubbornness. Cyd had given them a perfect, face-saving exit. Even as the third, less intellectually gifted goddess smirked triumphantly, Athena and Hera could smile back with genuine, condescending amusement.
I, Athena, possess the beauty of transcendent intellect. It is not the same as your… superficial allure.
I, Hera, am the pinnacle of majesty. Beauty is but one facet of my glory. I need not compete with one who has nothing else.
The conflict dissolved not with a bang, but with a collective, dignified sniff. The golden apple, once the object of a divine tug-of-war, now sat on the table like a piece of discarded trash. An unspoken agreement hung in the air: To take it now is to admit your beauty needs validation.
In the end, Cyd was the one who picked it up.
Of course, he didn't just get a shiny, trouble-making fruit.
The best way to please a god, it seemed, was through extravagant, specific praise. And since they already believed every word of it, they didn't see it as flattery, just Cyd stating obvious facts. But it still felt good.
Hera was the first to act. With the regal air of someone bestowing a great honor, she granted her blessing. It was, as Cyd had said, a blessing of supreme nobility.
"Wherever you walk, you shall be among the highest."
Wealth, status, respect—it would all flow to him as naturally as water downhill. A blessing of effortless privilege.
Aphrodite, not to be outdone in generosity, bestowed hers next. This one made Cyd's head throb just thinking about it, even if it sounded… convenient.
"Any love placed upon you shall find its perfect fulfillment."
A fleeting crush could bloom into eternal devotion. Any affection directed his way would be guaranteed a "happy ending." It was a romantic's dream.
Yeah, I am never, ever activating that.
Unfortunately, all the blessings seemed to be passive. No off switch.
Athena, who had been the first to dangle her blessing as a carrot, was now the most reluctant to hand it over. She admired heroes, loved watching them overcome impossible odds. Cyd, beloved by mortals and accumulating divine favors, was the greatest hero of the age. She wanted to bless him… but not yet. Once she gave her blessing, she'd lose her best leverage to send him on interesting, challenging trials. Her ideal plan had been to dangle everything but the blessing in front of him for eternity. But that wasn't an option now. The other two goddesses were staring at her with 'Your turn' eyes. Even Zeus was giving her a look that said 'Get on with it.'
With a faint, almost imperceptible sigh of regret, Athena extended her hand. A silver light, cool and sharp, flowed from her fingertips into the jade bracer.
"Your choices shall ever be the right ones."
The disrupted wedding feast, now lacking its central drama, resumed. Cyd slipped away from the grand hall, though the chatter behind him suggested the groom's big day had been permanently overshadowed.
---
Standing on the impossibly wide steps leading down from the divine palace, Cyd held up his left arm. The once-plain jade bracer was now a glittering tapestry of power. Eleven crystals glowed with their own inner light, representing the domains they came from. Only two sockets remained empty and dark.
"Two left."
"You're not leaving already, are you?"
A hand settled on his shoulder. It wasn't a heavy touch, but the sheer presence behind it made Cyd's muscles lock. He turned his head slowly.
The King of the Gods stood behind him, a casual, almost friendly smile on his face. Zeus looked more like a jovial, powerfully built king in his prime than the terrifying ruler of the cosmos, but the aura of absolute authority was unmistakable.
"My part is done. I thought it best to make a quiet exit," Cyd said, his voice carefully neutral. "Did… the great Lord Zeus require something?"
"No. I think it's more that you have something you haven't mentioned to me." Zeus released his shoulder and took a few steps down, then simply sat on the marble step. He patted the space beside him. "Sit. Don't look so tense. I'm not going to smite you. Probably."
That's not reassuring. Cyd swallowed hard and slowly lowered himself to sit next to the most powerful being in existence. What else could he do? This was Zeus. The god famous for his… expansive and indiscriminate appetites.
"You finally meet me, and you don't even ask for my blessing?" Zeus said, nodding toward the bracer. "I'm not an easy audience to get, you know."
"Well… I assumed your blessing wouldn't come… easily," Cyd said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I can be very generous. I was even prepared to give it freely, like my brother Poseidon did. If…" Zeus's friendly smile faded, replaced by a stern, thoughtful expression. "...you hadn't already received a blessing from Hades."
Cyd's mouth went dry. He couldn't find the words.
"Don't misunderstand," Zeus continued, his tone softening slightly. He reached over and pinched Cyd's cheek, a strangely paternal gesture. "This isn't some petty sibling rivalry. I'm not withholding because he gave first. It's what he gave you that's the problem."
"Immortality?" Cyd ventured.
"Not just any immortality," Zeus corrected, leaning back on the steps and gazing up at the artificial sky of Olympus. "That is a blessing that should never have been granted to a mortal. Honestly, couldn't he think about my position for once?"
"I… don't see the issue," Cyd said, fingers tracing the cool jade of the bracer.
"You still don't grasp what you're becoming, do you?" Zeus said, giving Cyd's head a light, almost playful swat. "That blessing isn't just divine favor. It's a piece of a god's fundamental authority. Now, add it up. Really think about the forces sleeping inside you."
Cyd's mind raced, and a chill that had nothing to do with the breeze swept through him.
Apollo's solar fire. Aphrodite's power of love. Hera's authority of sovereignty. Ares's essence of war. Demeter's command over life and harvest. Artemis's dual domains of the moon and plague. Hermes's unwavering truth. Athena's unerring wisdom. Hestia's protective hearth. Poseidon's dominion over the seas. And now, Hades's absolute authority over death—or rather, the negation of it.
"You are amassing power that surpasses any single one of us," Zeus said, his voice low and serious. "If that was all, it might be manageable. You are human. Mortal. No matter how powerful, your story would have an end. A limit. But now… you have no end. You will live forever. A being housing the combined essence of eleven deities, growing stronger with an eternity to learn and master it all. One day, you could eclipse even me. As Zeus, God of the Sky, I might find that fascinating. But as Zeus, King of the Gods… it is a problem that keeps me up at night."
"So…" Cyd's voice was barely a whisper. "I should never complete the bracer."
"In theory, yes. But the cat's already out of the bag. You have the one blessing that changes everything: eternity. Even if I withhold my power, you with the other eleven will eventually surpass me. So…" Zeus suddenly grinned, the seriousness melting away as he gave a thumbs-up. "I'll give you my blessing!"
"…What?"
"I can see it. You have no desire for a throne. No ambition to rule gods or men. You just want to… live." Zeus leaned back, twirling a strand of his storm-gray hair around a finger. "And frankly, I'm curious. Can the 'Pure White Hero' withstand the erosion of millennia? Can that core of yours survive forever? It's an interesting experiment."
"You're… very casual about this," Cyd said, a wave of dizzying relief washing over him.
"Oh, don't think it's free," Zeus chuckled, flicking a piece of invisible lint from his chiton. "Once you have all thirteen blessings, you won't be playing the wandering hero anymore, will you? You'll settle down. Find a quiet corner of the world. Grow olives or something terribly boring."
"That… was the original plan," Cyd admitted hesitantly.
"Then consider this the final task of the Pure White Hero," Zeus said, his voice taking on a resonant, kingly tone. He raised a hand, and a spark of concentrated lightning, white-hot and silent, danced on his fingertip. "A last act of devotion. Fight… to save the world."
He flicked his finger. The spark shot forward, not at Cyd, but at the bracer. It struck the empty socket next to Hades's black crystal.
CRACK-BOOM!
A soundless thunderclap echoed in Cyd's soul. The jade bracer grew warm, then hot, then cool again almost instantly. In the newly filled socket, a crystal pulsed with captured storm-light, swirling with clouds and miniature forks of lightning.
The Blessing of Zeus. The power of the Sky Father, the King's Authority.
"Save the world… from what?" Cyd asked, staring at the now-twelvefold power sealed to his wrist.
Zeus's smile turned enigmatic. "You'll know. When the time comes, you'll know. Consider it… your purpose." He stood up, stretching his arms wide. "Now, off you go. One more to find. And try not to break reality before you get it, would you?"