The Seashell - 10. Epilogue

Time no longer passes for me atop Mount Olympus where the clouds always gather into rosy fingered dawnlike twilight.

The scent of Ganymede's Jasmine scents the Garden of Delights with heavenly tones of lemon blossoms, orange blossoms, roses, and gladiolas. The Ambrosia Tree sings to me through its leaves old songs of remembered joys. Older than are all the gods and titans alike, the Ambrosia Tree was once called the Tree of Knowledge. Its fruit divided gods from men when Olympus was Eden and Eden was the name of this world now called Earth.

All who eat of the Ambrosia Tree in good faith have eternal life and are made gods and are sustained as such. Now, I guard this tree and make The Garden of Delights my favorite resting and loving place.

Nerites lays on his special patch of velvet grass petting the black pelt of Veloúdo Bastet, God of all Cats. Veloúdo grooms his own fur with his long raking pink tongue and sometimes grooms Nerites hair too sending it into scraggly tufts from time to time. Nerites doesn't mind in the least and continues to hum and quietly sing his sparklingly happy little ditties to himself and to anyone around who can hear him.

"By the way that new pet of your grooms your hair it is a wonder that you aren't snatched completely bald, Nerites." A low feminine voice intones from the moon-gate entrance to the Garden.

"Hehehehe! It would grow back if that were to happen. It makes Veloúdo happy to lick my hair. I'd lick his too if he liked that but he always looks at me strange when I try." Nerites' infectious giggle causes the great and ever so serious Goddess of Wisdom to smirk despite herself. I have noticed that she has had less cause to be so deadly serious all the time since Nerites and I moved to Olympus. Artemis insists that Athena never smiled once in the past 2000 years until we showed up. Now she does so with regularity even though she tries not to.

She glides forward with her majestic white robes girdled with gold rings and buckles that glitter in the half-light. Her Olympian Blue eyes seem to shine brightest among all the gods save Zeus himself. It would be no wonder, she is basically a living extension of Zeus. She seems to be that part of him that is his rational mind and keeper of his wisdom. Once, when wars needed guidence, she was pressed into helping in their just resolutions. Now, she no longer has that burden. For that reason she now never wears the Athenian Helm. Her beautiful golden brown hair is allowed to be free of constraint, though she still keeps her hair tied neatly up in a bun at the back of her fair head.

She strides toward me, taller than I am by five feet. She has come to attach herself to me as my 'girlfriend' or female lover. Nerites is my prime consort, but the others have found me irresistible and have formed their own particular love bonds with me. I encourage it. True Love has no place for jealousy or possessiveness. That was Aphrodite's curse. It is a curse I have sought to weed out from the world of men and gods these many months since my crossover to Olympus.

But, as for Athena, she has formed the strongest bond with me next to Nerites. Her purview is Wisdom and she has ever sought to temper that aspect with Love, but could never get any cooperation from Aphrodite to do so. I was later to find that this was due largely to Ares who was jealous of Athena being his co-reagent in war. Athena only sought for the peaceful and equitable resolution of conflicts through war while Ares gloried in the pure hateful destruction it caused.

I asked Athena after Ares. I always wondered why he was the way he was. She told me that he had been the God of Arms and the Holy Defender of the Gods. He was the one to drive off dark forces that would ever seek to assail Olympus. Dark Powers roam the earth older even than the gods and they have always sought to corrupt or destroy the gods so that they could take over and finally destroy Earth and all life on it to prove it to be . . . The Creator's mistake.

Ares was seduced by one of these powers that the Olympians came to know as the Black Dragon. They knew nothing more about this horrible entity other than that it was strong enough to corrupt the noblest of the gods and turn him to evil. Zeus did not have the heart to destroy Ares as he always hoped that Ares would 'snap out of it' one day. That day never came and Ares, instead, corrupted Aphrodite and turned love to hate in the world making the world a darker place than even the Black Dragon had managed to make it. Hence, the Sacred Aegis was mandated. Now that Aegis is a Sacred Gate. By the will of the Power, we gods can be sent as messengers and missionaries into the world of men. From time to time, we are called in if a problem arises that needs a stronger hand than an angel can give or if the temporal ramifications of a certain corruption can cause further damage to history and the vitality of mankind. We have become a sort of Divine 'Special Forces' unit, if you will.

I was given a special job. I was to help 'clean up' places where love goes wrong due to Aphrodite's failures. I am sent in, especially, if that love is pure, strong, and potentially perfect but in danger of being lost. Such loves in the world are very powerful. They are lights in the darkness that inspire the kindling of lights in other relationships. I am sent, every now and then, to correct a troubled relationship that has the potential of shining brightly enough to inspire love elsewhere. I call these relationships 'Seeds of Love'.

I must suddenly get a troubled look on my face for Athena bends down to look me in the eye from the side. Her usual sour expression returns as she sees this as anything that concerns me will concern her greatly. Nerites never concerns himself with anything, because to concern him would be a great sin. Joy can't exist where concern exists. Athena, ever the shield, intercepts my concerns before they can bother Nerites. It is probably what prompted her to come to me.

Looking into the Ambrosia Tree I sometimes see things where patterns are interrupted or broken by something. The Tree is the very Tree of Knowledge so it can show me where it knows when evil has come to visit something that challenges true love. Such a challenge is happening now. Darkness is about ready to consume an innocently bright but terribly broken heart.

The Tree shows me the vision now and I share that vision with Athena who contemplates it with me.

There is a boy on a bridge, he is no more than fourteen or fifteen years old, and he has been convinced that to end his boundless suffering he must kill himself. So blinded is he by the pain of the sparking, bleeding, and injured connection he has with his beloved that he cannot see that his death will only rupture love, life, and joy for all around him. His death will become a sucking black hole of despair that will draw not only his beloved into its vortex, but so many others that he influences now and will influence in the future if he continues to be.

I see that the pain of his injury is dire. It would kill him anyway if he didn't cut his life short. It would kill him because the connection he shares with his beloved is of the same bright emerald radiance as my connection is to Nerites. Only his has nearly been severed through and the boy's very lifeforce is bleeding out of the injured connection. What is more, the life of the other he is bonded to bleeds out to mix with the boy's vitality.

That other is also a boy. This may be part of the problem. In the warped human culture in which he lives in America, they both figure they are in danger if their secret love for each other is ever discoverd. Yet, together they long to be because they were made for each other. Indeed, their connection in True Love is a Seed of Love that can change many hearts and un-warp many mistaken conceptions of what love must be. By their true love for one another, their love will be magnified a thousand fold as their lives unfold together. They will influence a multitude of other people when their story of love is finally told in full. It is no wonder, then, that an Umbra of the Black Dragon has stalked these two and sown seeds of its own for the destruction of their love. They are a threat to the Darkness with their Light.

Even now, the other boy struggles desperately to replace what he has lost with this boy on the bridge. He tries to make another love connection with anyone else he can find that shows interest. But, he will neverfind a replacement for his one True Love. Deep down, he knows this, and if this boy knows that the love of his life has taken his own life on account of the loss of the love they shared, the other boy will die likewise. The despair will be too much. The Darkness will have consumed them both and many others besides.

They are just children! How vile a thing to play with their hearts like this! How cruelly the Umbra has toyed with their lives and made their love so seemingly impossible! Now, the Shadow is nearly victorious. It has driven the boy to the edge of the bridge I now see him on. He is building his courage to end his misery at long last. He is so filled with guilt, despair, and heartbreak that I cannot help but feel a shimmering tear fall down my own cheek as I look into his precious little life.

"Little One, how little you know and how fearful you are of what is to come. Don't you know, he loves you still? He will always love you. You are listening to lies!" But there is not time to reach out to counter the Umbra's black councel.

I am fortunate that I see an opportunity to quickly put an end to this tragedy. I see a thin green thread of connection leading away from the boy on the bridge and to another boy who rides his bike nearby. I see, what must be, a Guardian prompting the boy to ride his bike in a certain direction, carefully. This Guardian, unable to stop the Darkness from transpiring has set things up so that I can do what needs to be done. I 'pluck' the strand of connection between the boy on the bridge and the new boy on the bike. The one on the bike is getting closer.

"Be quick now. A friend needs you. Move quickly!" I speak into the resonance of the connection between the two boys. The one on the bike won't hear this as a 'voice', per say, but he will feel the urge to move. I see his big blue eyes widen in sudden worry and then he puts his legs in gear and rides as fast as his young legs can propel him!

My faith in their bond is not tested. The boy on the bike is just in time. The boy on the bridge was just priming himself to jump when the boy on the bike uses the momentum of his speed to jump off his bike and tackle the boy on the bridge and pull him away from certain death.

The Umbra, frustrated, rises to bring some other calamity into play, but it never has the chance. A shaft of golden light passes through the heart of the evil thing and with a twisted inhuman screech it evaporates. I look over and see Athena retrieving her mystical javelin from the branches of the Ambrosia Tree. She has a look of determined satisfaction.

I look back to the vision before me and smile. The shimmering bond between the boys brightens a bit. This act has made it much stronger and yet it will never have the strength of the bond between the rescued boy and his promised beloved in the distance. Already, though, the new boy is giving strength so that the bond of True Love will heal soon. This boy from the bike is a Guardian in the making. Even though some may see what he does in the days to come as being cruel and jealous, they will be born of a singular purpose: to heal and restore the heart of his much loved friend who's life he has just saved today.

So, the boy on the bike says to his dear friend: "MIKE! DUDE! WHAT THE FUCK, MAN? Why were you gonna do that for? Goddammit!" the Guardian Boy actually holds the boy he has saved close in a shuddering embrace as he realizes what might have happened if he had not been there.

"Brian! B-Brian? W-why did you stop me? I need to go. I just c-can't do this anymore, you know? I just . . . CAN'T!" Mike starts to cry uncontrollably into Brian's shoulder with wrenching sobs.

"Sure you can, Buddy. I'm here for ya, now. Whatever it is, we'll get through this together! I promise!"

Such a promise made in love . . . is always kept.