Chapter 17:

After today’s events, both Hera and Helia were exhausted, both for different reasons, of course, so hand in hand, they both sluggishly made their way to Helia’s room where they could get ready for bed. Hera had her handmaidens prepare the bath for Helia so that she could just get in, clean herself up, and get into bed. Hera had opted for a shower once Helia had been taken care of and put into bed.

Hera undressed, letting her peplos pool around her feet, and hopped in the shower, letting the hot water cascade down her entire body to relax her tensed muscles. She glanced down her naked body and saw the bruises that adorned her hips that her gracious husband had left behind. Hera hadn’t been that afraid in the past four years; sure, Zeus would treat her that way in the past, summoning her to him so he could get a quick release, even as he had been able to freely fuck whosoever he wished. Whenever he cheated, even now that he was free to do so, Zeus would still claim he was sorry and believed that she wanted him to show his sincerity by having sex, whether she wanted it or not; and it was always the latter of the two. Hera had believed that if she stopped harassing Zeus and let him be, she would be left alone, but that did not happen. He hadn’t stopped chasing Hera and continued coercing her into sex, but this time was different. It was more violent and reminded her of the past. A past when she constantly begged him to stop his violation of her, but just as he had done back then, he did today; ignored her pain and her cries.

Hera would fight him when he would grab her in such ways, begging for his release of her, but after a while, she found it futile to continue fighting and would just give in and let what was eventually going to happen to her take place; she hated it. Zeus was selfish and a rough lover, if you could call him that, and not in the way Hades was; no, he would just pound into her no matter if she was ready or not and just chased after his release. When he was finished with her, he would leave to take a shower, leaving her behind and aching in a non-pleasurable painful way, and carried on. She felt like a rag doll when it came to him, something for him to use and play with when he fancied, only to be thrown to the side when another toy caught his attention. Today, she had had enough and did not want to carry on with the way things were going, and so she fought back with no intentions of stopping, something she did not ever think she would do again. Wanting to return her focus to the present, Hera shook her head to get rid of such thoughts and continued to enjoy her shower as best she could.

Once she had finished and magically rid herself of the water, she got dressed in one of her silk nightgowns and headed towards the room. She expected that she would walk in to find Helia fast asleep, but instead, she saw her sitting up in bed reading a book. She smiled at the sight and cleared her throat to catch her attention.

“What are you still doing up, little one? You should be asleep by now.”

“I was about to, but something happened to wake me up, and so I couldn’t go back.”

“Why not? What happened?” Hera asked as she made her way over to join Helia in bed.

“I’m not sure how to explain it. I was comfortable and about to drift off, but I don’t know, I started to feel these emotions.”

“Emotions?”

“Mm-hmm, they were not mine, I could tell, but it still felt pretty strong. Just like earlier when Athena and I were in the library.”

“In the library? What emotions were you feeling?”

“Well, earlier after you left, everything was fine, then I felt anxious and annoyed, but then this wave of anger and fear came over me. I couldn’t understand it, and when I tried, suddenly, a sense of relief came to me, and I felt better. However, a few moments ago, I felt afraid, and then I felt sad, but after a few minutes, I was okay. I still couldn’t go back to sleep, and so, I just started reading a book Athena gave me.”

Hera couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was her daughter feeling her emotions? It couldn’t be, but the feelings that she described exactly matched what Hera had been feeling moments earlier.

“Oh, okay, how are you feeling now?”

“I’m fine.”

“Well, then we should go to sleep.”

“Hera, before we go to sleep, could I ask you something?”

“Sure, only if I get to ask you a question afterward.”

Helia pretended like she was thinking intently about the question and giggled her reply, “Deal.”

“Alright then,” Hera asked as she laughed at her daughter, “what’s your question?”

“Earlier, when we were in the library, and Aphrodite was teasing about how she and I could talk about you...”

“Yes, I remember, which will not be happening, by the way,” Hera joked.

“Well, you called me your daughter, and I wanted to know if you were aware of what you said.”

“Ah, I see. Are you not my daughter?”

“No,” Helia answered sadly. Hera wanted to tell her that she was, in fact, hers biologically but decided against it for now.

“Let me rephrase the question. Do I not treat you as my daughter even in this short amount of time that we have known each other?”

“Yes.”

“Then why shouldn’t I call you my daughter?”

“I don’t know. I guess I was thinking you made a mistake in calling me that.”

“Helia, you are just as much my daughter as any of my children, but if it makes you uncomfortable...”

“No! I mean, it’s fine, I don’t mind. I just wanted to make sure you knew what you said and how you meant it.”

“Good, I like calling you my daughter.” Hera paused to hug her closer to her side. She wanted to convey how she really felt and hoped that Helia caught on, and by the sigh that Helia gave, Hera knew she got her point across.

“Now, time for my question.”

“Okay, I’m ready.”

“This morning when you, Athena, and Ares were in the arena, and Ares seemed,” she wasn’t sure how to describe it, “umm distracted, what were you talking about?”

“Oh, I asked if he was upset that I asked you to help train me because you taught him. I told him how proud you are of him; that’s when he zoned out, and I asked if he was upset that I wanted your help, and he said no. I still wasn’t sure, but then he kneeled down and told me that he wasn’t mad at me, just shocked that you agreed to help since you were hesitant at dinner.”

“Oh, okay, I just wanted to make sure that everything was okay between the two of you. If there are no more questions, we should get some sleep.”

“Alright, then, goodnight Hera,” Helia said as she snuggled more into Hera’s side.

“Good night, little one, sweet dreams,” and with that, they both were pulled into the land of dreams by Hypnos.