The goddesses pretended to sigh and, in tones both helpless and moved, said, "All right, all right—since Father always favors you most. But you should still think this through carefully."
"If there's a next chance and you truly don't want it, you must speak up in time. We… we're willing to share the burden for you!"
Atropos lifted her little hand in a rallying wave, both proud and confident. "Don't worry! Leave it to me! Next time we get a chance, we'll do it again!"
"Mm… but next time we should be a little more cautious."
As she spoke, she rubbed, without thinking, at her still somewhat sore little backside.
The five goddesses traded covert looks and held back hard not to burst into laughter on the spot.
Inside the hall, Zeus and Themis heard their children's peerless "loud whispering" outside as clear as day.
In the end they couldn't help it and laughed together.
Nestled in Zeus's arms, Themis smiled and said, "Silly child—always liking to be clever."
Zeus's face was all fond indulgence. "She's a bit silly, that's true. But I rather think her fearless, devil-may-care temper is somewhat like mine. A touch of mischief and liveliness isn't a bad thing."
Themis shot Zeus a bewitching sidelong glance, full of breeze and spring. "Go on, spoil her. Keep indulging her like this and one day she'll bring you a disaster the size of heaven."
Zeus laughed low, pressed a fond peck to the cheek of his beloved goddess of justice, and mumbled, "With the children at your side, with your tireless instruction, I'm not afraid they'll truly go bad."
"They are our children—yours and mine—their nature is the best. Taught at your knee by the most just and spotless you, they'll never take a crooked path."
His voice grew softer. "Dear Themis, my beloved, my most precious treasure. These days everything has pressed on your shoulders. You've truly worked so hard."
"It's all thanks to you. Having you at my side is my eternal good fortune. Thank you, my beloved Themis—my dearest."
The gentlest Themis raised her hand and with slender jade fingers lightly covered Zeus's lips.
In her golden eyes was unhidden feeling enough to melt glaciers of ages. "My love, please don't say such things to me. To be able to do what I can for you and for all beings in this universe—my heart is full and gladly willing."
The goddess of Justice suddenly put both arms around his neck and, with boundless fervor, offered him a fragrant kiss.
Heat spread from lips and teeth. The sudden, ardent affection left Zeus startled at first, then wholly enchanted.
After a long while the goddess of Justice parted from her beloved God-King.
She pressed herself tightly to Zeus's broad chest, heart asking heart.
In a tone of deepest feeling, she confessed with utmost earnestness:
"Zeus, my love, my most high Lord, my most loving and broad-hearted Father."
"In former days, I too once dreamed—what should this universe become? What should the order of the universe be?"
"My Father God—that former First God-King, the sovereign of spirit—Uranus."
"It was he who, together with our most revered Mother Goddess, Gaia, built the universe's first order."
"Thus the universe had a beginning."
"But he never truly held this universe in his heart. Lofty as he was, the only one he could hold in his eyes seemed to be Mother—and even then, it was by no means an equal love."
"As for us… we, his creations, were not even fit to be caught by the corner of his eye."
"How powerful he was. Whatever god he wished to erase would vanish at but a thought."
"He regarded nothing; all was at the mercy of his whims. His love and desire, too exuberant, ever drove him to do as he pleased, without restraint."
"All the gods of the universe, in endless despair and fear, cast all else aside and strove with all their might to overthrow him."
"'Titan,'" Themis's voice held a touch of history's bleakness, "this title that now stands for honor and nobility in the universe—"
"But do you know? When it was first born, it meant 'the timid,' 'the craven,' 'the trembling.'"
"For in that age, before that willful spiritual sovereign, whoever you were—you could only… tremble."
"We were not born noble; despair forced us to grow."
The bewitching Themis stroked the face of her beloved Zeus with deep feeling.
In those golden eyes that judge all beings and adjudicate the law of fate, there was now only tenderness enough to dissolve all.
Softly she said, "My beloved—your Father God, the Second God-King, Kronos. He was once the youngest and most dazzling among us Titans. Once, he was just like you are now."
"You share the same, most radiant golden hair and golden eyes. Once, he was the bravest among us—the most resolute and the richest in wisdom."
"When our revered Mother Goddess set that mad plan to topple Father—"
"It was he who, when all elder brothers and sisters shrank back in fear, took up alone that most terrifying and most arduous burden."
"It was he who faced our Father, unspeakable and unseeable, horror like a nightmare."
"It was he who split the stifling heaven from the despairing earth; he who, with the Primordial Ending, utterly cut away our Father's most rampant love and desire."
"After the war, we gladly acclaimed him Second God-King, for we all agreed that in courage and decision we were not his equal."
"He truly opened a new age. As 'God-King of Creation' he created many new lives, and for the first time the dead-still universe had true vitality."
"Those newborn beings also greatly relieved the ancient gods like us, whose divinity was going mad from eternal loneliness."
"At that time he was a God-King without question. We revered him, and all beings worshiped him."
"But…" a sorrow beyond words entered Themis's voice, "soon, after he held all power and might, he began to grow… more and more like our Father."
"More and more like that tyrant who saw only himself and ruled alone."
"The new order he built soon began to grow rotten and cruel. I saw with absolute clarity how dark, how wrong that order was."
"But I had no strength to resist. The only thing I could do was leave in disappointment that Mount Othrys built upon devouring and fear."
"Even now I do not doubt that, without your coming, in the end all of us gods would have been utterly devoured by him, one by one."
"His greed, even compared to our Father's, was no less—indeed more. He wanted to possess everything—everything of everything."
At that, her voice sounded lightly abraded by old sand and wind; the holy goddess of Justice, famed for her steel and endurance, let slip a rare hint of softness and helplessness belonging to the past.
Instinctively, she nestled closer into her beloved God-King's embrace.
As if once more covered by the powerlessness of that dark age.
But now she had an absolute refuge.
Zeus did not interrupt her; he only held his dear goddess of justice gently in his arms, strode to the highest throne, and sat.
He set the spotless order of justice secure in his lap, guarding her like the most precious jewel in the world. His palm smoothed along her cascade of golden hair. In silence he went on listening.
The tender Themis pressed close to her beloved God-King's chest and grew quiet for a moment. Only when her breath and the God-King's heartbeat grew nearly one did she say softly, "Later—you came."
"My love—it was you. You, like a bolt of thunder that rips the eternal night, appeared in our world. You saved us, who were waiting for despair; you saved a universe on the brink of extinction; you…"
Themis's red lips lightly touched Zeus's lips.
With a trembling voice and a tone both ardent and unwavering she said, "My hero, my God-King—it was you… who saved 'Order.'"
"You ended that endless darkness and cruelty—ended that absolute autocracy and greed."
"And it was you who created a new order—who created the most brilliant, most dazzling, most holy, most just, most great order."
"My love, you are my Most High Father!"
Zeus had been listening quietly; many times over, He was a good listener.
But at this point He could no longer endure it.
He bent suddenly, turned thunder to tenderness, and kissed his beloved goddess hard.
It was a wild, forceful posture, as if to take this goddess who symbolized "Order"—everything of her—completely and forever into His own divine body and divinity.
And "Order" answered Him with her gentlest, most ardent, and most steadfast response.
She wrapped her arms around her beloved God-King's neck, letting two tides of divinity meet between their lips and teeth in rings of ripples.
Long after, long after, they finally parted.
The goddess of Order, breathing a little fast, lay in longing on her God-King's chest and, in a voice like dream-speech, went on softly, "My love, once I too was so afraid—so afraid that you would be corroded by the poison of power."
"So afraid—so afraid you would change, become no longer what you were at the start. Become another terrifying God-King who made me afraid—both strange and familiar."
"But you did not change."
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