Chapter 9 — A Promise
In a great Garden of red roses lay a woman of divine beauty on a throne of roses.
She had long red hair, red eyes, fair skin, and full lips; the expression of tenderness on her face didn't match her seductive beauty.
That beauty was Aphrodite, who was reflecting on a promise she had made to herself.
To protect a mortal who had captivated her in every possible way.
She could no longer keep it. She had truly tried.
Over the following months, the goddess wandered the halls of Olympus, speaking with goddesses and gods, asking for favors, offering deals, and trying to find a loophole. Godwyn belonged to an age that was coming to an end, and Aphrodite knew that when the gods decided something should disappear, even a blessed existence could be crushed by fate.
She sought help, means to save him; none of the methods she thought of would bear fruit.
Aphrodite knew that answer.
In Olympus, everyone knew what happened to those who defied Zeus. There were too many stories: gods punished, entire families struck down by a single decision. Zeus didn't need to raise his voice to be obeyed. It was enough for his name to be spoken.
Still, Aphrodite thought about seeking him out.
Maybe in person.
Maybe she could convince him.
Maybe she could get him to make an exception.
She walked to the enormous gates leading to Zeus's hall and stopped before them. Her hand hovered for a few moments, but then she felt something.
A low, warm pulse within her womb.
Aphrodite froze.
She slowly brought her hand to her belly and felt it again.
A small divine energy.
Faint.
But unmistakable.
Her eyes widened.
She already knew.
She didn't need to ask the fates. She didn't need prophecies. She didn't need any god.
She knew exactly who the father was.
Godwyn.
For a few seconds, Aphrodite simply stood there. Then she smiled.
A small smile, different from the smiles she offered other gods. There was tenderness in it.
She looked at Zeus's gates, then at her own belly. She understood that she had come to a choice.
If she confronted Zeus, she could lose a great deal. And she might not even manage to save Godwyn.
But that small life...
That small part of the two of them...
That, she could protect.
Aphrodite pulled her hand back from the gates.
She would not go in.
Not that night.
Maybe never.
She had learned something that even a goddess had to accept: not every battle could be won by force. Sometimes surviving meant choosing what could still be saved.
She knelt slowly, and her hand returned to her womb.
"I couldn't protect him."
Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
"But I will protect you."
Her eyes closed.
"With everything I have."
*Maybe in the future, if she could get some favor from Hades, she could get Godwyn's soul...*
This was her first thought, but Aphrodite didn't know how the future would end. She didn't know if Godwyn would survive the extinction. She didn't know how much time she would have.
But she knew one thing.
That child was proof that even at the end of an age, something new could be born.
And she would do anything to make sure it survived.
Aphrodite rose to her feet.
She looked once more at the life growing in her belly.
The promise made to Godwyn had not died.
It had only changed.