Book 2 They spoke of an immortal Queen who would rule both the underworld and the earth, her power undeniable , her name is Athena. She is said to have hellfire coursing through her veins and she is unlike anything they've ever seen.They speak of her with awe and reverence, for her strength and wisdom are unmeasured. Her beauty is breathtaking, her aura powerful and commanding. Athena is a force to be reckoned with. Her voice is sharp, her presence like a storm. Yet in her eyes lies a deep understanding of all that exists in the world. Her powers are beyond comprehension and her will is unbreakable. When Athena speaks, all creatures obey without question, for she is the ultimate arbiter of law and order. Her power is absolute, for she has conquered death itself. Athena is more than a mythical figure; she is the embodiment of power, courage, and justice. With her at the helm no force in this world can stand against her. She is after all the Queen of the Underworld, ruling all with a steady hand and an unyielding willpower. Athena is the one who keeps the world in balance. She is the bringer of peace and order, and the protector of all that is good. When evil threatens to destroy the world, it is Athena who stands up to it and puts an end to it. She is the defender of justice and the champion of truth. Athena is the one who makes sure that wrongs are righted and that justice is served. No matter what the odds, Athena will always fight for what is right. She is the embodiment of courage and strength, and she never backs down from a challenge. Her determination and tenacity are unrivaled, and her resolve is absolute. Athena is the perfect example of what it means to be a hero and a queen.
Thousand upon thousands of soldiers marching towards the castle is enough to make anyone frightened. As the two girls watch with worry the soldiers come closer and closer with every second that passes. One terrified to be sent back to that awful prison while one is terrified of the soldiers themselves. In her village, men would sometimes go to fight in the wars, and most of the time they never came back. She would never want that for someone, for someone to suffer like that, she knows that she wouldn't have survived if her brothers had been sent to the wars.
She doesn't know who sent the soldiers but she does know that those soldiers are not going to be friendly ones.
"They're coming for you, aren't they?" Athena asks after finding her own voice.
She's been so lost in a trance of watching them grow closer and closer. They are far away, yet it will not be long before they come here and who knows what will happen then. She doesn't want to think of the worst case scenario of what could happen.
"I fear so, unless my brother has done something wicked to get our other brothers here. You could say they don't like the heat" She says smirking, hiding the fear behind it.
"Your other brothers? They're coming here?" Athena says, her eyes widen with shock.
She's met Poseidon a few times or just twice but that was insane for her, at first it was when she just arrived in the Underworld and didn't understand anything about it and even now she doesn't understand everything and so many things confuse her about it, the second time was when he said the love of her life was cursed.
"Of course, all four of them need to be present to be able to send me there" Hecate answers, as if she was supposed to know that.
"Your majesty, I've been ordered to bring you to the King" A young boy, perhaps a little younger than Athena comes to them, startling both of the girls watching the outside from the window.
When Athena turns around, she sees the boy bowing down before her and he's dressed in a guard uniform which surprises her as much as it does Hecate, as both of them believed all guards to be dead or at least in slumber from Hecate's magic.
"Of course, I shall come right away" She answers.
Because she really has no idea how to get back to the throne room, she follows him, allowing him to bring her to her love.
Hecate doesn't follow them. She stays by the window, plotting what she can do next as there isn't much that can be done at this point. The soldiers have surrounded the castle on every side, there is no way out and all she can do is hide or fight more soldiers than she has ever seen in her life and more and more join as this army belongs to only one of her brothers, the others will soon be joining them with their armies. The four brothers shall be united, yet only to capture and imprison their little sister.
Athena walks the hallways, ignoring the dead guards on the floor and feeling bad about it, but as she follows the boy, she begins to realize that she's seen this boy before, only she can't remember where and coming from the girl that has a good memory that is surprising, then again she doesn't have all her memories yet and she could just be missing the one she has of this boy. But she swears that she has seen or even met him before, he seems too familiar to her to not have.
"Do I know you?" She finally asks the boy after a moment.
They have been walking the hallways, with him in front of her and she following him. He stops right in his tracks and turns around to look at her, letting her see him better than she had before. His light blonde hair flowing in front of his dark shade of brown eyes, the eyes knows she's looked into before in her life.
"Yes" He whispers to her, as he takes a step closer to the girl.
Her eyes meet his and they stare into each other's eyes.
She has this feeling of familiarity as she stares into his eyes and she does take a step closer to him.
"How?" She asks, her voice barely above a whisper as she dives deeper into his eyes, trying desperately to figure out who this might be and why she feels like she knows him.
The longer they stare into each other's eyes the more the feeling of familiarity grows and she can't help but feel like she should definitely know who he is, but she just can't break the wall in her mind to find the answer she's looking for.
"You are and always has been the Queen who will rule the world and you hold power over life and death. My death was only the first of many by your command" He tells her then turns around again to walk to the throne room.
Leaving the Athena shocked out of her mind, not even following behind him, the words he has spoken echoing in her mind like a tornado has entered a raging thunderstorm.
Her hands hug herself, as she finally starts to walk again to follow him but he's long gone. Her mind racing with thoughts that never seem to want to leave her. Her eyes have gone to the floor, never caring about the dead guards as she's not even looking at them, she's not looking at anything. This shocks her and with everything that has been going on, she's not even sure if she should be shocked or not, she's not sure of anything anymore. She just wants to return to normal, where she could actually understand the things that were happening to her.
She walks to the throne room, only to see that the people that were on the floor have been removed, either they woke up by themselves or someone removed them. Yet, she sees no one around. Only three people are in the throne room. Lucifer, the boy who had come to get her and she, herself. Lucifer of course sits on the throne, the look on his face emotionless and if anything, glaring daggers into the boy's skull. However, his face does light up when he sees her walk into the throne room and make her way over to him.
Yet, as soon as he notices that her gaze is on the boy, anger courses through him and his blood begins to boil, wanting nothing more than to let his beast out to slaughter and gut the boy right here and now, but stops himself when he realizes that she's in the room and does everything in his power to not lash out.
"Leave!" He harshly orders the boy.
The boy does what he is told, while the girl's gaze is still on him, trying to figure something out, and it seems like she's lost in her own mind.
"Are you feeling all right, my love?" He asks her.
She walks to him, and now that the boy is gone, her eyes stare down at the floor, yet they don't seem to be looking at anything. She doesn't answer him and that troubles him a lot, as she doesn't even seem to have heard him or his question. Athena just sits down on her throne and continues to look at the ground, as if he isn't even there at all, far too lost in herself to even notice her surroundings. Lucifer gives her a worried look but does sit down on his throne.
Her mind is so focused on who that boy is and the words that he spoke is like a riddle to her that she hadn't noticed that she had sat down on her throne, not even remembering why she was there in the first place. Then suddenly, her mind goes back into motion and she realizes everything. Looking up from the ground and straight to the man she has fallen in love with, and deep in his glowing red worried eyes. Her fire ones filled with salty water as she looks at him.
"Your brothers. They've come to take her?" She asks him.
Referring to Hecate and how the soldiers are still out there and they shall be here soon and she doesn't want them to come, she doesn't want to lose the only friend she's ever had in this place, or at least a real friend as the last friend she had in the Underworld tried to kill her and was never really her friend at all, as it turned out, she only wanted to murder her. That's not a real friend, that she does know, even when she didn't have many friends in her village.
Seeing her like this does break his heart and as much as he doesn't like the idea of her going back to that prison, he knows that's its for the best. She still has time to serve and even after twelve thousand years, she's still unstable and it just was not her time to be free, but soon she shall be free once again.
"I fear so" He answers her, yet he regrets the words as soon as they've left his lips.
"Then why do they bring armies, surely they don't expect her to fight them?" She asks.
He needs to remind himself that she still doesn't know the ways that are there.
"The army is only for our safety, my brothers and ours. As she will not be coming willingly and if so happens that her magic is used on us, we shall have to be protected somehow and as my army is not here, theirs will have to do" He explains, his eyes never leaving hers.
She plays with her fingers, feeling nervous and a bit afraid, the courage inside her laying low, not even making its presence known to her and that does annoy her, this is the moment that she needs to be brave and she needs to have courage.
"I will do everything within my power to uphold my promise to her and I shall not let them get her. Even if I have to fight to the death, I will not break my promise" She says.
Once her mind has been made up, there is no changing it and she's not backing down from this. Even if she has no courage left, she's still determined that she's going to keep that promise that she made to the only real friend she has ever had, besides she doesn't believe that Hecate deserves to be in prison.
When he thought that he couldn't love her more than he does, she somehow surprises him and he falls deeper in love with her, for she is becoming the Queen that she was always supposed to be and not once has he doubted her.
"I understand that, yet as a Quee-" He's cut off by a loud knock on the doors that lead into the throne room and soon the doors open for two men that walk in as if they own the place.
The two men look identical and by the looks of it, they could be twins, only the color of the hair and eyes separates the two.
"The place has not changed, Hades" One of them says with a smirk, the platinum blonde hair falling softly over his grayish-white irises.
They walk to the middle of the throne room and stand there, as the door closes behind them.
"My brothers, welcome. If I had known you were coming, I would have offered some refreshments, like some knives in the heart" Lucifer answers.
He's clearly annoyed and angry at them, knowing that he does love to remind that they've stepped into his kingdoms with his rules.
"And I believe that's the young Queen Athena we keep hearing off" The other brother says, dark brown shade haired.
Their clothing exactly the same, armor as they might be going into battle. Athena does nothing but glare at them, as they don't seem to be her favorites today. Though, she does wonder why he called him 'Hades' but doesn't question it.
Lucifer only smirks at how she's angry at them and pretty soon she's going to blow on them and that will be fun to watch, for him at least. It's about time his brothers get some discipline and from a sixteen year girl, it shall be spectacular to watch as they cower in fear of her.
Now that's she seen them, she unimpressed, perhaps it is because she's already in a foul mood because of everything that needs to be handled, she still needs to fix the problem with the people and how they poorly treat each other, perhaps it is because she doesn't like the idea of them taking away the only friend she has in this place and the fact that they want to imprison her even after she has been in prison for the last twelve thousands years. A number that she can't even count to.
"That is correct" She says, her voice emotionless.
Trying everything she can to not go with her instincts and be kind to them, she just doesn't allow it. At this moment, she doesn't like them very much. However, she does miss seeing Poseidon, since he's the brother that she does like, or like more that is. The two brothers standing on the floor look at each other with a worried look as they know they've upset the greatest Queen ever to exist.
"My name is Venus and this is my brother Terra, we are the Kings of nature and air, pleasure to meet you Queen of fire and the Underworld" The platinum blonde one says formally, knowingly that he doesn't want to anger her as he doesn't want to get burned.
"You know why we have come here and we ask of you both to accept us and we shall be on our way after we have received what we have come for" He continues.
But he doesn't even get a hint of emotion from her, which worries all three brothers.
Not once has Lucifer seen her like this, and maybe it has something to do with the fact that she just came back from the dead and is still becoming the person she used to be but perhaps there might be another reason for that, he doesn't know and doesn't want to ask. The ruthless King would never admit it out loud but he can get terrified of the things that the young Queen is capable of doing and the power she holds inside her are ones that he doesn't want to provoke.
Lucifer comes up to her.
"I have to go take care of something, you take care of them for me" He whispers to her and winks.
He does see a hint of mischief sparkle in her eyes.
"Of course" She tells him before her gaze goes back to the two nervous brothers.
Lucifer then walks out of the throne room, making them even more nervous than they were before and they're not even sure if they can get more nervous of her now, or more terrified.
"Unfortunately, I do know why you have come here and I've come to tell you that you will not be getting Hecate, you shall not take her by force and you shall not take her to that prison. She shall remain here with me. Fail to accept these terms and there will be war" She tells the brothers, the power radiating off her
They can already feel how powerful she is, yet they have no idea just how powerful she really is. As she spoke, the flames on each and every candle in the throne room reaches high, the flames becoming unstable and angry. Their faces fall when she speaks, of course not expecting her to say those words, then again they hadn't expected her to be like this.
All the stories from Poseidon are of a girl that is kinder than any soul to ever be born and yet so powerful. When she had spoken, she was so calm and it was natural, as if she was born to be the Queen and she certainly was, there is no doubt about that. Terra steps forward. His eyes meet hers and she notices that his eyes are the most perfect shade of green, like the fresh green grass around the house she grew up in.
"You are defending a person you barely know, it shows you have courage and you believe in her. I admire that. I do. However, I've known my sister since the moment she was born and if there is one thing about her you need to know is that she does trick people into getting what she wants, she's manipulative and uses others to do her biddings" He says.
And if she didn't know better, she'd say that he's the one that's trying to trick her and use her to get to Hecate. How dare they come here and order her to do something? If they think that she's just going to listen to them talk like that about Hecate, her friend, then they're wrong because she doesn't like it when people lie about her friends.
She knows Hecate, probably a whole lot more than them even though they are her brothers. This makes her mad, a lot. She's angry at them and she's so angry at the people in her kingdom and she just ready to burst out, letting all the anger out of her.
Athena has had enough of them and stands up.
"You shall get out of my kingdom and take your soldiers with you because I swear to you that they shall burn in Hellfire if they are not out of here. This is my kingdom and I am its Queen and if I say that Hecate stays here she shall do so!" She says, the anger coursing through her.
The flames have turned to light and dark shades of blue and are violently reaching high up. The irises in her eyes glowing bright orange and the lines of the flames in them moving in fire like moves .
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