Heartbeat close

The woman was no longer young. But the faint wrinkles at the corners of her eyes did not mar her beauty in the least; they merely added charm, like patina gracing an ancient weapon. Despite the slight imprint of age and weariness, her face was just as beautiful, her skin still snow-white, and her eyes just as unbearably blue as sun-pierced water in a spring. Those eyes and the pointed tips of her ears, glimpsed through dark curls, betrayed her kinship with the water nymphs. She was dressed in a noble purple peplos, cinched by an elegant gold belt of intricate filigree, and she looked regal. Odysseus did not know this woman, did not remember her. But something in her face, in her eyes, in her entire being, stirred a strange, gnawing pain in his heart. The woman was rocking a baby, leaning over the child with a gaze full of love and a tender smile. And everything about this child was wrong — the soft, light curls, the impossibly young age, the tiny, utterly unfamiliar face. The very presence of the infant somehow intensified the pain in his chest. "Mother, aren't you tired? Shall I rock my sister for a while?" A youth of about twenty, dark-haired and slender, somehow vaguely familiar like an old portrait of himself found in an attic, reached his hands toward the woman. "Step—... Father will join us soon. A fine day for a walk on the shore, is it not?" The pain in his chest became utterly unbearable at the youth's smile, and Odysseus jolted upright in bed with a choked groan. It was dark around him. Only through the enormous windows poured the greenish glow of moonlight, filtered through water. It spilled in puddles across the smooth marble floor, and shadows from the waves rippled across them. As Odysseus caught his breath, a school of fish, dull-silver in the half-light, drifted past the window. He was home. Everything was in order. But the pain in his chest did not subside. The large figure beside him stirred; its eyes ignited with blue light. "Nightmares again?"Poseidon sighed, reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder in a heavy, comforting gesture. "Worse..." Odysseus leaned into his touch, his shoulders relaxing slightly. "Her again. I don't even remember her. Why is seeing her and some boy more painful than the deaths of thousands and cities in flames?" "That is why you chose not to remember her. If I tell you, all of Hypnos's work will be undone, and it will hurt a hundred times worse," Poseidon easily drew him back and pulled the light silk blanket over them both. "I know it's unbearable, but it's an itch from a healing wound. If you tear it open again, it will only get worse." "I know," Odysseus grumbled, habitually pressing his back against the deity's mighty chest. Poseidon was harder and cooler than a human, but there were advantages to that. At least his embrace reminded him of no one. "But it's truly unbearable... Just tell me, are they alive... or that it wasn't my fault?" The pain he felt... as if he had lost them. Someone very precious to him. And he couldn't even remember who. Poseidon snorted softly but obediently repeated, as he did almost every night when Odysseus had this dream: "They are alive and happy.And none of it is your fault. The Fates simply wove the threads of fate so that this 'some boy' prayed to me instead of someone else. I just had to help him. Don't ask what it changed, but when you decided to fly off that cliff, I thought there had been enough suffering." "And kept me prisoner here for another year, aha," Odysseus smirked, gradually lulled by the steady voice and the even beat of the deity's heart. "For your own good," Poseidon grumbled. "Had I known how it would end, I'd have thrown you out that very day." "You still can..." Odysseus yawned lazily and curled up in the other's embrace. The sharp pain in his heart finally subsided, and the curiosity scratching at his soul grew weaker. Maybe it really wasn't worth reopening old wounds? He was home here, and the one who mattered was near. "Can't," Poseidon snorted softly and pulled him closer. "I've grown too fond of the feel of your heartbeat close..."