Chapter 9

                                    

                                          
Adora
                          
Athena is leaving today. Today is also the day in which we are to have council with her. We have spent the last week keeping up appearances. We decided that the best time to leave would be tomorrow, for we would probably not be gone longer than a week, and Athena would be far too distracted to pay much attention to our escapades. It was to my knowledge that Athena has grown curious as to the nature of my developing relationship with Brone. Penelope has heard from other servants that Athena has become perturbed that my relationship with Brone has become one of similar essence as his parents. 
                          
I have also been using this time to tend to my plants, which now reside in a wonderfully renovated garden, and train. My fighting skills have a long way to go until I am anywhere near ready to fight in a battle of any kind. During our sessions, however, Brone has become increasingly more hostile to me. I had hoped after our first session that things would not be so bad between us. His tender words and actions of that night had made my affection only grow for him.
                          
During the hours in which he was courting me, he is a perfectly agreeable gentleman, who I would not mind spending the day with, however boring it might become as the hours went by. I suppose I do not mind so much that he becomes rather barbaric and does not mind his words around me. But the soft edge from the first session has gone completely. Even after we finish training he continues to be cold and distant until we reach the end of the path. 
                          
I suppose what truly urkes me about Brone's actions is that neither side that he has shows me feel like they are genuine versions of Brone. He is not the charming gentleman from our dates. But he is not the loutish savage from our training sessions. The only time that he has seemed like he was truly himself was that day so long ago. I have known him long enough to know that much. My heart aches. I have known Brone since for more winters than a mortal would see in their lifetime, and I know less about him now then when we first met.
                          
Since our arrival at the manor, there has been but one day, I suppose, in which I rather enjoyed Brone's company. 
                          
The day of the picnic.
                          
That day, he had been charming and agreeable, but he still held the playful, mischievous twinkle in his eyes. When we trained, he was brash and harsh while we fought, but gentle and tender when we were not. I suppose I rather like the brutish side of Brone on occasion. Perhaps it is because I find that it compliments my cute self quite marvelously. 
                          
But I suppose that if we were to wed nobody would notice his unseemly, primitive behaviour, my charming self would distract from it too much. And if they did, I do not see why they would object, Brone needs someone delightful and amiable to smoothen out those rough edges while in public, such as myself. 
                          
I stop my thoughts before they go any further, my actions halting also. Wed? No. I would not entertain the idea of Brone winning the deal and marrying him. He would want me to rule the underworld with him. 
                          
Truthfully, being a goddess has never been something that I was particularly fond of. Not that I would want to be a mortal, they were filthy and carried disease. But I was often envious of the women. They were able to bear children and care for them as they grew. If I were to become a goddess, I would not be able to take days off to tend to my children, nevermind stay home with them. I know that it is not a life that appeals to every being, but it is one that I could only dream of. Goddesses do not become stay-at-home mothers. 
                          
The queen of the underworld certainly doesn't.
                          
Besides, I will break my curse and marry the god that my mother chose for me. Well, that fate chose for me, and my mother paved my way to meet him- or her.