Fire.
It had always been his companion, his solace, the only thing that never abandoned him. The forge glowed in the dim chamber, embers swirling like lost stars in the air.
Hephaestus stood before the anvil, his calloused hands resting on the metal. This place, the heart of his craft was the only home he had ever known.
Yet something had changed.
He clenched his fists as fragments of another life flooded his mind. They came unbidden, strange yet familiar. A world beyond Olympus, beyond even mortal Greece.
A life of machines, towering cities, and men who forged their own fates without the will of gods. And in that world, a single truth struck him deeper than any hammer blow.
Lovecannotbeforced.
Hephaestus exhaled, the weight of centuries pressing down on him. He had spent so long clinging to a marriage built on duty, not love.
He had convinced himself that devotion alone could warm a heart that had never truly belonged to him.
His forge crackled, the heat licking at his skin, but the warmth did not reach his chest.
Outside this place, everything was cold. No winter wind, no northern frost, this chill was deeper. It lived in the walls of his home, in the silk sheets that had known the touch of others, in the halls where laughter was never his to share.
And yet… he still loved her.
His breath hitched as the thought settled in his chest like molten lead.
Why?
Why did his heart still ache for a woman who had never been his? Who had taken his name but never his hand? Who smiled at him with pity rather than passion?
Silence answered him.
For all his wisdom, all his skill, he could craft weapons to shake the heavens, but he could not forge an answer to the question that tormented him.
But love, he knew, was not eternal. Not when left to wither. Even the hottest fire, if neglected, would dim.
And millennia had passed.
Hephaestus lifted his gaze to the forge, watching as the flames flickered, struggling to stay alight.
So, too, had his love for her.
He had once burned for Aphrodite. Now, all that remained was embers, waiting for the wind to carry them away.
And perhaps… it was time to let them go.