Empress of the Gods

Atarah

Atarah knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep that night, but she tried to rest. She got up from bed before sunrise, trying not to wake up her sister. She took a deep breath and tried to be brave to listen to what Jack had to tell her because she knew there was more of it before she flew out of there.

They would leave for Euthoria on that day, and she didn’t know if she would return to the golden city.

The only hope she had was that with William by her side, maybe going from one place to another wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Her head was the last place she wanted to be at that time. Jack told her that she had practically been born with the sole aim of defeating the darkness that came from another world. She wondered how she would do that, if she did it at all, although she didn’t have much of a choice.

It made sense why the Dimneas’ dagger fell into her hands, since they had been created in the same place. Like calls to like.

When she entered that room again, she found Jack in the same place he had been. He was clearing his desk of all the books he had in it. She took a few to help him, and Jack looked at her with a faint smile on his face, to which she replied with an equal one, and when she moved those books, she created a new pile in that room. Then she pulled a chair to sit on while he poured tea into the cups that were on the table. Jack Grayson knew she would return, or else there wouldn’t be two cups on that table. Milk and honey either.

“The story was about a goddess named Aster that was deeply in love with someone that did not see her. A darkness she initially feared surrounded the star. She cried without realizing that each one of her tears somehow affected the mortals. The goddess begged Sonneus, the father of all gods and her grandfather, to take her pain away, but his answer always deceived her. She went to her father Thesus, the God of stars, but he never gave her enough attention as he did with her siblings, making her feel like he didn’t care about her at all.”

“She didn’t want to feel anything at all, yet she dreamt of falling in love. She had seen how mortals fell in love under the light of the Goddess of the moon and couldn’t help to want the same for her. She was lonely in that darkness, and while she stayed in there, she realized the only light out there that could barely be seen was the one she had inside. It might be smaller, but it never turned off. Her light struggled to expand and come out to the surface, but it was in there. So, she started to understand the darkness that surrounded her as she began to understand her light. She noticed that her light kept growing every time she dreamed, but it seemed to become smaller when the god she was in love with didn’t look at her.”

“One night, she saw endless lights around her that shone with intensity for only a brief moment. She wiped away each one of her tears to observe the lights without realizing that Dimneas, the God of destiny, was watching her.”

“He was expecting her to shine again, to smile again.”

“Sonneus gifted Dimneas the flame he threw with his arrows that contained small flashes of destiny that looked like shooting stars. Those lights glowed in the dark sky for only a moment. Only for Aster to see them so she could continue dreaming. The god of destiny didn’t want her to feel alone in the dark. He wanted her to contemplate the lights around her so she could remember that without darkness those stars wouldn’t look so beautiful in the night sky.”

“From the balcony where Aster sat, she saw a flash that came from below, which made her look down, noticing Dimneas with his bow that had one of his arrows with the flame of Sonneus on the edge. She realized he was the one who was illuminating the darkness with those lights. The God of destiny stopped for an instant to contemplate her, rising a half-smile before he threw with his bow another arrow, creating another shooting star. Aster smiled in a way that her light expanded, remembering she was the night star. She was moved and grateful to know that someone was with her. Tears of happiness slipped from her face and fell into the Dimneas firepit, intensifying and changing the colors of the flame into dusk colors. When that happened, Aster did not look away from Dimneas, and neither did he, only occasionally when he threw his arrows.”

“The God of souls contemplated the scene at the exact moment the bright light of Aster shone when she saw his beloved Dimneas. The God of souls tried to cover himself from it, not realizing that when he did, he had thrown a pinch of his power into the firepit, giving life to a flame that disappeared as soon as Aster stopped shining. No one of the gods realized that the fire on the firepit only appeared at the precise moment that was necessary. The night flame of Dimneas firepit contained too much power. In the same way that it contained the love of the night star and the God of destiny.”

Atarah listened to every word Jack said as she held her cup of hot tea in her hands. “I’m trying to understand what you’re saying to me, but ...,” she heard her voice fade into thin air.

“The night flame appeared again in the firepit when someone almost released Erebus from his prison,” Jack added.

“But it doesn’t make sense. The timeline doesn’t match. It’s like you are telling me that I’ve reincarnated in many lives,” she said, leaving the cup on the table as she put one leg on top of the other.

“I’m sure this is your second life.”

“How can you be sure of this?” She desperately asked, and he looked at her as if he couldn’t reveal more. “I know, you can’t tell me anything else because you can alter the course of things,” she answered to herself as she braided her hair.

“The gods brought you to this place for a reason,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “If you don’t believe in Sonneus or the gods of the Asteria Castle, then believe that something is giving you the opportunity to make a change that can affect everyone’s destiny. And if you don’t believe in yourself, then believe in the love you have for your brother or your friends. Or don’t you think this world deserves better?” Jack placed his chair in front of hers. “I once met a brave and stubborn young woman who was full of dreams and who did not believe that it was impossible to find her brother despite everything she was against. I told her a couple of times that she couldn’t do it, that it was impossible, but she made the impossible possible.”

She gave him a weak smile. “I’m not the woman you once met.”

“No, but you had the same doubt in your eyes, and despite this, you managed to find your brother. Fate has knocked on your door, but only you decide how to respond,” he said, trying to cheer her up.

“I think they already decided that for me.”

“Atarah,” he softly said. “The gods have chosen you for a reason. Not your brother, not your friends, not me, but you.”

That reminded her of the nymph who told her she was the only one who could carry out that task.

“I don’t know what I have to do,” she confessed in a low voice, as if she was ashamed of it.

“When the time comes, you will know, Your Highness,” he respectfully said to her. Atarah feared those last two words because they made her think about everything that had happened. She wasn’t sure, but a part of her was telling her that Rhiannon didn’t want her to just be part of Drykahria’s court or for Elysia to be her spy among the courts. She planned something else for them. There was a possibility that she knew the amount of power that ran through her veins, which was strange because she didn’t know it.

The gods made their choice with her, and the nymph was guiding her toward her destiny. They needed her to become queen or something else so she could defend her people, but she could not control her protector or the gifts with which they had blessed her. She didn’t know if in Euthoria she would find a mentor to help her or if she would have to look elsewhere. She had longed for freedom, and in a twisted way, she had it. It was her choice, but not so much. What about what she wanted?

“I’m not royalty,” she told Jack, knowing that she was an heiress without a throne who still had to survive the Tsaraath trials to become whoever the gods wanted. Without forgetting that she had to convince first Drykahria’s majesties not to kill her before she set foot in their lands for the first trial.

“You are the empress that the gods chose, and I don’t doubt for a moment that you are the empress the driadaes realms have been waiting for a long time. You are the night flame. Your protector is a sign of the amount of power you possess. So why do you keep denying it?”

Because she wasn’t half the person others expected her to be; because the plans she once had were changing faster than she thought; because the journey she thought she had started was really about to begin, and she was barely getting to know who she really was and if she accepted it, then she would have the weight of the world on her shoulders and she didn’t know if she could take it all by herself.