Chapter 326: Enticing Offer

16th May 2013, Sayre Manor

(Hestia POV)

Immediately after having a mortal vessel, Hestia teleported to her beloved, who was slowly walking on a beach. She smiled as she took in the woman's sight for the first time in thousands of years. The scrying simply wasn't enough to capture her beauty, the way she felt. Oh, she was different, very different, and yet she was still the same at her core. This was a woman with a will of steel and yet filled with so much love and so much sadness.

Hestia smiled and walked next to her beloved, "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?"

Her beloved nodded without looking, "Yes, it is."

"Yes, it's nostalgic. It's been a while Medusa."

The moment she said the name, Hestia knew that she had Medusa's attention. Her beloved turned and even in a different vessel, she knew her identity immediately, "Hestia?" she murmured more like a prayer than a question.

Hestia smiled warmly at her beloved and nodded. Yes, they were together once more.

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(Jasmine Sayre POV)

I honestly didn't know what to think. It was a miracle, something that I never even entertained as a possibility in my mind. Hestia was always a fond memory, in the back of my head. Whenever I think of her, I remembered the nice memories we shared together, where she got me to move on from what happened to Atlantis. I lost my home, but I gained another one with her on Korinthos.

We might have been separated by tragedy and fate, but the time we shared was always precious to me, and what I lost when she was gone, was something that I only regained centuries later thanks to Selene.

I shook my head at the thought of Selene. I still loved her deep down, but the sting of her betrayal was still there. I might have lost a chunk of my humanity, but even a spark of it would mean that I still feel love. In a way, I didn't really stop feeling, I still have emotions; anger, hate, happiness, despair, glee, were all things I experienced. But there was a logical, and analytical tint to them. I could ignore them, refuse to feel their effects to focus on another more important matter. I could distance myself from them to be as impartial as possible, but it didn't negate them.

Yes, I was different, but I was not a machine. My heartbreak over Selene's betrayal still hurt massively, and it was something that I just didn't want my daughter and her girlfriend to see. I put those things in the back of my mind, focusing on the miracle in front of me.

Hestia is supposed to be in another dimension. She had ascended as a god with the rest of her people, and thus was banished from the mortal world by the wards of Agamotto. She shouldn't have been able to manifest herself in this place, and yet, this was without a doubt Hestia.

This was impossible, it was inconceivable, it was a miracle. I should be overjoyed, but all I felt was confusion, "How are you here?"

My former lover grinned, "Odin. His blast shifted the dimensions local to this universe. The wards are still stabilizing to the aftermath, and there are a few gaps which I used to sneak in here."

Alarmed, I prepared myself to warn the Sorcerer Supreme of this face. If Hestia was able to enter, then an entity like Dormammu could also sneak in. Seeing my panic, the Goddess of the Hearth scolded me, "You have time to worry later, my love, let's just enjoy ourselves right now."

She walked towards me and enveloped me in a warm hug, "I have missed you, Medusa."

I let out a warm smile of my own, "and I missed you as well, Hestia."

I looked her up and down, "I'm surprised by your new body…"

The woman chuckled, "It's not mine. I still have the same form. No, it's just some mortal that I'm possessing."

I raised an eyebrow. This wasn't really a Hestia thing to do. She always advocated free will and condemned mind control. When I used the mind arts to erase the memories of raiders that tried to attack Korinthos, she always scolded me afterwards. I guess that thousands of years could change anyone, even her.

As if she was reading my mind, Hestia blushed in embarrassment, "Come on, it was the only way I could come and meet you, and It's only temporary. In a few days, the wards will stabilize, and I will return home. And I did transmute a few pounds of gold for her trouble, and I even healed her terminal cancer, so she'll get to live past the next few months."

I shrugged, not really caring about what happened to a random mortal woman. People die all the time, Hestia taking over the body of one of them didn't matter much to me. But what really stung was the fact that it was a temporary situation, "So, you'll have to go back?"

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"Yes, it's only temporary. I just needed to see you, and at least say goodbye this time."

I responded in a mourning tone, "Yes, we didn't even get to say our goodbyes last time."

Hestia, though, wasn't to be deterred by my tone, "Now, it's not the time to think of the past, just enjoy the present. Come on, there are so many things I want to see."

She grabbed my hand and we teleported away. I looked around and found myself in New York City. It was night, and yet the city was still crowded, it wasn't sleeping. Hestia gasped in shock, "These mortals are very ingenious. I have to say that it's different to see things in person instead of scrying."

I raised an eyebrow, "You could scry from Olympus?"

She nodded, "There are a few allowances for Gods. It's why the pantheon was still being worshiped centuries after we left. We were able to affect the world in small ways, depending on the belief of our followers. It's why you could find champions running around in Ancient Rome, who had a smidgen of power from my siblings."

Oh, that made sense. I just thought that they were mutants or sorcerers that thought to emulate the gods somehow. They tended to hunt me down back in the day, something about me being an abomination in the eyes of the gods. I did tend to roll my eyes when they kept preaching about their gods and how I should repent. At least, I did that before, you know, killing them all. They were all so annoying about it and wouldn't stop appearing out of anywhere. I just ended up leaving the place to stop dealing with the hassle, and Fate did show me that I had another role at another place.

Nevertheless, this was very curious information. It did remind me a bit about how Demons tended to have influence over the physical world when they made deals with mortals. I guess that worked in a way with gods as well. I gave her a sly grin and wiggled my eyebrows, "Did you look at me, as well?"

She blushed, "Not as much as I would have liked. Your wards are very good, but I did like to keep tabs on you," her smile suddenly looked sad, "you've experienced so much hardship, my love."

I shrugged, "It is what it is. As you said, it's useless to live in the past and forget about the present."

"So, you were never tired of it all?"

I released a bitter laugh from my throat, "Tired? Hestia, I'm exhausted. Even after I was practically a glorified servant to Time because of my time loop, the moment I am free, I'm tasked with fighting one of the most dangerous beings in existence because the people who are actually responsible for keeping him in line just didn't bother. So, yes, sometimes I think about just giving up, letting the world burn, just to spite those assholes that call themselves cosmic entities."

Hestia snorted, "Well, it's nice to see that your tongue is still as sharp as always."

I deflated from my little rant, "I really did just keep going, didn't I?"

"You've been keeping that in for a long time, haven't you?"

"Yes. I'm just tired of being the one having to deal with everything. I just feel like my life was never mine like it was just a story written by some higher being who only wants me to experience hardship after hardship until I slowly come apart. Even Selene, who I thought was the only good thing about my life, ended up betraying me. I guess I'm just tired of it all."

Hestia perked up at the mention of Selene, "I have to ask, Medusa. Why her? You could probably have chosen any other woman, and taught them a method to longevity and loved them as well. Why did you just choose to love Selene?"

I simply shrugged, "I guess, at the time, I didn't even really think about loving anyone else. I just saw someone that was just as tired of her immortality as I was with mine, tired of seeing everything wither and die, and I guess we latched on to one another, becoming companions, then friends, and then more than that."

"Do you regret it?"

"Do I regret loving Selene? No, I don't. I don't think I ever will. Selene provided me with stability, a way to keep me grounded, to call me on my bullshit and whatever idiotic decision I make. I see now that her betrayal was as much my fault as it was hers. She might have made the decision, but I betrayed her by leaving, even if I didn't have a choice. We were each other's rocks, our ways of preventing the other from going too far. It's just sad that Selene ended up going too far concerning me than anything else."

Hestia gave me an incredulous look, "Seriously? She messed with your soul, Medusa. There's no betrayal worse than that. And you're ready to forgive her, just like that?"

I shook my head, "Oh no, I do not forgive her, I will probably never forgive her. Whenever I look her in the face, I will see the woman that betrayed my trust in a way no one had ever done before, in a way that I didn't even think was possible. But even then, I will still love her."

"After all this time? After all she has done?"

I nodded, "Always. I know it doesn't make any sense, but love is rarely logical. Oh, don't worry, I will probably never take her back as a lover, let alone as my wife. This breach of trust is like no other, but it's hard to forget the millennia that we spent together, with no one else to share our grief."

Hestia looked down and asked, "What about me? Do you still love me?"

I froze at the question. Do I still love Hestia? Sure, the image of her is very nice in my mind, but I was no longer that grieving young witch that lived in Greece, and I was different. Sighing, I replied, "I love the woman you used to be. But time changes everyone. I am not the same that I used to be, and you are not the same woman I used to love. You might have been able to observe me, all this time, but the fact is that I do not know you, at least not enough to love you. Perhaps if I knew you better, I could have, but we only have so little time left together. Why do you ask?"

The Goddess of the Hearth gave me a sad smile, "You always were a logical one, weren't you? I asked you because I had an offer for you, one that can be affected by your answer."

I perked up, interested, "What is it?"

"I'm offering you a place at my side in Olympus. To ascend with me to Olympus, where you would rule by my side as my Queen. You said it yourself, you're tired of being a pawn in this game of destiny. So, just give it up, and come with me, stop caring about them. You owe them nothing and they do not deserve you. Come with me and live as my wife until run itself runs out."

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