Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2022 16:01:29 -0400
From: Rick Heathen <rick.heathen@gmail.com>
Subject: Centaurian - 8

Centaurian - Chapter 8

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All Rights Reserved © 2022, Rick Haydn Horst

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events,
locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination
or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living
or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Thank you for delving into this work; I hope you enjoy it.

Please send questions, comments, or complaints to Rick.Heathen@gmail.com. I
would enjoy reading what you have to say.

------------

Synopis: When an unusual man comes into the protection of Officer Liam
Phillips, Liam doesn't know what he's in for. His world gets broadened and
turned upside down in this adventure of love, sex, gods, a one-quarter
equine, and a vacation he will never forget.

------------

Centaurian, By Rick Haydn Horst

Chapter 8

Mount Olympus is Greece's tallest mountain. It has an array of fascinating
flora and fauna, waterfalls, and incredible views topped by fifty-two
craggy peaks, and every year, thousands of regular mortals trek up and down
Mount Olympus, all heedless of the knowledge that their feet tread upon the
earthly foundations of the abode of the gods from the divine realm, who
they believe to be nothing more than myth. Olympus has coexisted there in
the primordial aether atop its mountainous namesake since the Titanomachy.

Ronan teleported to the divine realm, just outside the gates, near the base
of the acropolis. He found himself in a rectangular courtyard flanked by
two marble fortifications highlighted with architectural fret. He took in
his surroundings, and the air held the warmth of early summer and the sweet
fragrance from a variety of perpetual blossoms from the gardens of
Olympus. The sun in the cloudless sky illuminated the intricate marble and
gold mosaic beneath his feet, whose vanishing edge several yards behind
him, told that he stood near a cliff, beyond which seemed to lay nothing.

He could see little of Olympus apart from its only entrance, a towering
columned and arched gateway made of white marble inlaid with metallic
gold. It appeared that no one guarded the gates, and he thought to hurry
through the golden bars. As he approached, three sisters of incredible
beauty known as the Horai appeared, dressed as guards with golden helmets
and armor, carrying adamantine swords whose razor-sharp blades they had
kept inside their scabbards.

"Welcome, Centaurian," said the middle one. She nodded her head
acknowledging him. "We have awaited you."

His brows rose in curiosity. "Who are you?"

"I am Eirene, the goddess of Peace."

"Eunomia, the goddess of Good Order."

"And I am Dike, the goddess of Justice."

"Ah...Peace, Good Order, and Justice, three goddesses whom I admire
greatly," said Ronan. "Given your importance---if I may so inquire---why do
you have the task of guarding the gates?"

"An astute question," said Dike who glanced at the sister beside her.

"For millennia, we have stood here," said Eirene, "initially believing our
appointment held honor. We have come to realize that we stand outside the
gates of Olympus to give Zeus free reign to distort a meaningful Peace,
impose his own tyrannical Order, and pervert the spirit of Justice. At
great risk, we have discussed this and have made a conscious choice."

Their unsmiling faces no longer held Ronan's gaze, and with their heads
held high they maintained a forward stare reflecting their united resolve."

"We know why you have come," said Eirene, "and you may pass." Whereupon she
stepped to the side of the passage.

"With our blessing," said Eunomia who did the same.

"And may Justice prevail," said Dike who copied her sisters.

Ronan thanked them, and as he moved to the gate, three heroically handsome
naked men, rippled with muscle, emerged from behind a pillar on the other
side. One god looked in his thirties along with his two identical twins in
their early twenties. The younger ones looked genuinely pleased to see him,
and unlike when the older one lived on Earth, he had well-kempt hair and
beard. His overall appearance outshone any statue ever created of
him. Ronan knew him from Chiron's memories; it was his former pupil
Heracles. He stood staring at Ronan for a moment, the figure of a model
athlete and Olympian.

"Hello, Centaurian," he said through the gate. "These are my sons Alexiares
and Anicetus."

"Hello," Ronan said to them. "Like you, your sons certainly are handsome,
Heracles."

His brows drew together. "You are half Chiron, and we discussed this; you
should know how I hate that name."

"Still not quite `Hera's Glory' after all this time, Alcides?"

"The things she did and made me do are unforgivable, and she will remain my
enemy for eternity. She is no better than Zeus, and he let her do it. When
Athena brought me here, Zeus made me gatekeeper only to help Hera avoid
me. We have an uneasy truce. That's about all."

"You know why I'm here," said Ronan.

"Yes."

"Will you let me pass?"

"Zeus ordered me never to let you in," he said, and he tapped the golden
bars between them, "but you probably could rip these gates down with one
finger."

"At this point, I wouldn't even need my hands. I'm just trying to be
non-combative."

When a rumble of thunder echoed throughout Olympus, they both noted it, and
a deafening clash of a close lightning strike followed.

"Hmm," Heracles said with a little tip of his head, "he knows you're here;
you might want to change tactics."

"You told him I was here?"

"I'm sorry," he said. "It's Zeus; I had to."

Ronan nodded. "I understand." He concentrated and stepped through the bars
with a fiery embering that allowed him to slide through.

The three men's eyes went wide as they backed away. "The gates are
gold-covered adamantine. That should be impossible," said Heracles.

"Really? No one told me that."

"We're glad you're here," said Alexiares. "The six of us will follow."

Ronan nodded and hurried away.

Beyond the gates, Ronan faced a right turn to a wide golden stairway that
followed the marble wall, curving to the left and upward around the base of
the acropolis. To his right lay the line of life-size statuary of lesser
gods. They stood atop the newel piers of a railing along the cliff edge, a
drop so far down, the bottom disappeared into the cloud cover below. As he
raced up the curved stairway, he would have passed a few hundred statues
before reaching the top, but he realized that he had no memory of Chiron
ever visiting Olympus, so he had no knowledge of its layout. He hadn't a
clue where to find the temple to Zeus. So, he burned away his shirt,
manifested his giant white wings, and took to the air.

Due to its extreme age, and contrary to all expectations, Olympus looked
old-fashioned in an unappealing way that couldn't even match the beauty of
the Athenian acropolis in its prime. That acropolis---built hundreds of
years later, largely by Ictinus, the greatest architect of ancient Athens,
during the fifth century before the common era---had the benefit of many
centuries of human innovations and a greater understanding of architectural
beauty. Ictinus would have found the aesthetics of Olympus
appalling. Rather than a focus on great visual appeal, what Olympus had was
great quantities of gold---as if that represented the pinnacle of elegance
and beauty. It had gold streets, gold roofs, gold this, gold that, it had
an overuse of gold to the point of monotony which gave Ronan, who flew
above it all, difficulty when trying to distinguish one thing from another.

Oddly, he could find no one on the streets and wondered where they might
have gone. When he spied a thin trail of smoke rising above one of the
courtyards, he knew where to find Poseidon.

The Brazen Bull of Phalaris consisted of a life-size hollow bull made of
bronze. A hatch on its back allowed authorities to seal the condemned
inside it, and a fire built beneath it would then bake to death its
occupant. The method of torture and execution seemed so horrific and cruel
that historians have had difficulty believing it ever existed, but they had
pronounced it one of the worst ever conceived if it had, and arguably only
a sadistic maniac would ever dream of using it. However, the Athenian
Perilaus created it for the Sicilian tyrant, King Phalaris, who fit that
description well. Perilaus told Phalaris that once the screaming inside
began, it would echo through a series of chambers and tubes built within it
and would exit the bull's mouth and nose sounding like those noises made by
a real bull. According to the story, the king loved it and wanted a
demonstration, but unfortunately, he had no one on which to test
it. However, Phalaris had its inventor Perilaus who---in short
order---became its first victim.

It hadn't surprised Ronan that the Brazen Bull appealed to Zeus, not only
would it give him a means to torture someone, but he had taken the bull as
one of his symbols when he cheated on his wife Hera with Europa long before
then. This caused many on Olympus to note how baking inside the bull
paralleled life on Olympus under Zeus's tyranny.

The courtyard in front of Zeus's temple held a beautiful garden, with a
wide variety of colored bulb plantings in permanent bloom. In the center,
the bronze bull stood atop a massive slab of marble that carried the scorch
marks from the fires of the bull's previous usage. When Ronan arrived, he
saw the fire had just started. From a distance, he reached out his hand and
imitated grabbing the burning wood beneath it and flung it, causing it to
fly off into the distance. He raised his hand concentrated for a split
second, snapped his fingers and time stopped, leaving him in an angelic
glow within his personal time-field. When he landed, his wings burned away
in a line of fiery embering as he rushed to the bull. He grabbed the
locking mechanism and tore it from its hasp. Having thrown back the hatch,
he saw Poseidon inside curled into a ball, his face wet with tears in an
expression of abject terror. With his hand glowing evermore brightly, Ronan
placed it inside and touched Poseidon, giving him his own time-field.

Poseidon gasped in fright at the sudden change.

"It's me!" said Ronan.

"Ronan!" He said in panic. "Get me out of this thing!"

After helping him climb out, the moment Poseidon's feet touched the ground,
he hugged Ronan.

"Thank you. I wasn't sure you knew what had happened.".

"Chronos told me," he said. "I have stopped time; that's why everything
looks strange."

"You can stop time? You are as powerful as I thought."

"I should get rid of this..." Ronan placed his hands onto the bull and
heated it. "You might want to step back a bit; I wouldn't want to get this
on you." The metal oozed, dripped, and then ran down the bull's body until
Ronan had left nothing but a solidifying puddle of bronze on the marble
slab it stood upon.

"Where's Zeus?" asked Poseidon.

"I'm not sure, I suspect he's somewhere nearby. Where is everyone? When I
searched for you, I saw no one on the streets or anywhere else."

"They're all here," he said and gestured to the darkness around them. "They
stand watching from the cloisters surrounding the courtyard. Zeus had
everyone on Olympus gather to witness as he took my powers from me before
placing me into the bull."

"He took your powers again?" Ronan shook his head. "That needs to
stop. Would you like me to give you power he can never take away?"

"Yes, please!"

"I will do this, but I must tell you that I cannot give you a realm of
influence or the divine authority that Zeus took from you. I can only give
you an equivalent power. And while he cannot take this from you, I still
could. Having given it to you makes me responsible for what you do. I only
ask that you never use it for evil, no violent revenge---especially for
minor offenses---no petty vindictiveness, and no violating anyone
either---sexually or otherwise. We have no legal system, so if you feel you
must take vengeance upon anyone, make sure it's for something truly awful,
like when Aquila stabbed Kakia for destroying Felix Raposo."

Poseidon told him, "I trust that you would only take my power if I actually
deserved to lose it. With Zeus? Not so much."

Ronan laid his hand on Poseidon's chest, and as the energy flowed to him,
he took in a sharp breath as he felt the surge.

Breathing heavily, he said, "This feels different."

"You're probably stronger than you were," said Ronan. "You should have seen
Liam when I gave him his powers."

"So, Liam has gone through apotheosis. I told you he would."

"Yeah, that wasn't a pleasant experience for him." Ronan held out his hand,
manifested a brilliantly lit time-sphere, and tossed it into the air where
it hung unsupported about fifteen feet above them. He made a hand gesture
to brighten it further, illuminating the entire courtyard.

Within the cloisters, there stood those who lived on Olympus. Ronan then
understood why Athena told the lie. It wasn't enough for Zeus to torture
people; he made his subjects watch as a warning.

Ronan gazed about to find the miscreant. "Let's find Zeus."

A search of the courtyard and the temple told of his absence. When Ronan
came across Athena in the crowd, he decided to unlock them all to ask what
they saw. The moment Athena saw Poseidon, she hugged him in relief and
thanked Ronan.

Behind them, from the direction of the courtyard, came a belligerent voice
from a god approaching them. "You should not interfere with the king's
decisions. I will defend my father and his throne." When Ronan turned to
see the golden-chest-plated god who had spoken, everyone backed up as the
god punched Ronan in the face with all his might, after which, the
assailant yelled out in agony cradling his hand. Ronan found the god
devilishly attractive with that wild and dangerous bad boy vibe that looked
more than willing to cuckold his own brother, slay a thousand men without a
second thought, and immediately begin to lay a thousand women with a
virility of a thousand gods.

"Ah, it's you, Ares," said Ronan. "What a handsome god of savage warfare
and slaughter you are. But now, I see why many of the gods find you so
annoying."

His upturned right hand lay shattered and crippled in the palm of his left.
"I have fought many battles against a multitude of fearsome enemies and
never have I broken a bone! What ARE you made of?"

"Ooh," said Ronan, "snips and snails and puppy dog tails, probably. Here,
allow me." He used his forefinger to touch Aries's hand, and it began a
line of embering that mended his injury.

Unfortunately, the moment it healed, he drew his sword and everyone around
them retreated even farther. "I will not allow you to dethrone my father!"

"You're a right old stereotype, aren't you?" asked Ronan. "I have noted
your objection. However, you are but one voice among many. For now, let us
listen to what others have to say."

Ronan hadn't bothered to stop Ares when he made an unsuccessful attempt to
slit his throat with his sword. He grabbed the adamantine blade and jerked
the weapon from Ares's hand. As everyone looked on, they gasped as he
started at the tip, manipulating the metal as he folded the blade---end
over end---until it met the hilt. He then handed it back to Ares.

"That was my favorite sword."

"And this is my favorite neck," said Ronan. "Do you know why Zeus has used
torture to keep you all in line, and never destroyed any of you? It's not
because he's so forgiving or cares about you, it's only because he hasn't
the power to do it. You're lucky, Ares, that I'm not like your father, or
else, I wouldn't hesitate to take you by the pollex and hallux---as I had
with Kratos---jump into the sky with you and vaporize your ass. So, I
suggest you reach deep inside yourself and find the discipline to listen,
or at the very least remain quiet and non-disruptive."

Poseidon grew tired of it. "Why don't you just freeze him in
time...permanently?"

"Because, as the opposition, he should hear other voices besides the one in
his head telling him to kill, maim, and slaughter." He addressed them
all. "I don't know how many of you agree with Ares, but I want to thank you
for taking a moment to listen. I have been asked to remove Zeus from the
throne by those who are tired of his tyranny and torture. I would find it
helpful to know how many of you would ask me to remove him. One thing is
certain, even if only a minority of you want his removal, something,
somehow, must change."

"I want Zeus to remain the King of the Gods," said Eris, the goddess of
strife and discord. "I agree with his methods of punishment. Why should
those of us loyal to Zeus lose him in favor of the will of traitors?"

"I agree," said Enyo, the goddess of destruction. "If you attempt to remove
Zeus, I will call for civil war."

"There aren't enough of us who disagree to mount a civil war," said Apate,
the goddess of deceit.

"You do this Centaurian, and we will make you regret it," said one of the
Erinyes, the goddesses of vengeance, of which there were several.

Ronan turned to Athena and Poseidon. "This may be more complicated than I
anticipated."

Poseidon whispered, "I told you that some gods were evil by their nature."

A goddess with braided hair encircling her head came forward. She wore a
snowy white chiton whose drape resembled a fluted column. Knowing Ronan's
power, she uncharacteristically restrained herself. "You do not belong
here," she said to him. "Who are you to interfere with the gods?"

Ronan asked, "Who is Zeus to interfere with ME?"

"He is the King of the Gods."

"Well, he's not MY king. And which goddess are you? Olympus has so many."

"I am queen."

"Ahh, well, if it isn't Hera, the queen of petty revenge. I expect no
answer to this question, I only ask it as food for thought. Do you not care
what Zeus does, other than when he's cheating on you? Surely, you remember
when he tortured you. He has harmed you, just as he has harmed many other
people, not just long ago, but recently. Today, he nearly killed a good
friend of mine. He deserves no one's loyalty." As Ronan spoke to them all,
several within the crowd loyal to Ronan separated themselves and moved to
stand behind him. "You ask me, who am I to interfere? Half of me is
Chiron---a son of Cronus---so I am brother, uncle, cousin, or some such
distant relation to all of you. So, do I belong here? Not to live, perhaps,
but certainly related enough to drop by without calling first. As for the
topic of interfering, I hold no enmity for any of you, but since I'm the
only one powerful enough, I cannot allow Zeus's actions to go
unchallenged. He would just continue to harm others, and for the sake of
all that's good and decent, I will not allow that.

"I know that long ago many of you also did horrible things for whatever
reason, but that is the past. However, I want it to go on record, that the
Earth and its people are now under my protection. A protection---I will
add---which also extends to those of the divine realm who request it, and I
have had such requests.

"I know some of you have already made this choice, and I commend you for
that. You have my admiration and gratitude. But the rest of you, have the
choice to either learn to embrace the larger community and get along
or---at a bare minimum---you can adopt a benevolent indifference to its
existence, for I refuse to tolerate anyone acting against it."

"And if we are the ones who refuse?" asked Hera.

"I will make this exceedingly clear," he said. "By your actions, if any of
you make yourself an enemy to humanity, the Earth, or any of your fellow
divinities under my protection---including civil war---you will have made
me your enemy. At that point, I would consider every aspect of your
transgression before I respond to it. However, rest assured that I have no
need to torture anyone. I have plenty of other options. I ask so little,
just play nice with others and mind your own business. If anyone refuses to
do that...well, we'll just see how that works out for you. Zeus has already
made himself my enemy, so you may wish to reconsider following him. I must
ask that those of you who wish to live in peace and recognize that things
must change to stand behind me with the others." A few others joined them.

So that they could speak in privacy, Ronan raised his hand and removed the
personal time-field from everyone except those who stood behind him. Of the
two-hundred and thirty-seven gods and goddesses present on Olympus that
day, only sixteen of them wanted things to change, including those who
Ronan met at the gate who had joined the group.

"There aren't many if you," he said.

"Some of us are on Earth," said Athena.

Ronan nodded. "Okay. I can dethrone Zeus, but the fallout from that could
be enormous. So, I have a recommendation, and I don't know how you might
feel about it, but I intend to build a home base, and all of you who wish
to live in peace may join me. It may not have thrones, but it will have
what matters most, peace, choice, respect for others, freedom like you've
never experienced, and an opportunity to grow."

"That sounds wonderful," said Athena, "and I appreciate the invitation, but
why should the others get to keep Olympus?"

"I can only ask," said Ronan, "why would you want it? There are so many bad
memories here. Of those of you who have evolved, why not let go of the
past, act in accord with who you have become in all its fullness, and start
afresh? I can give you that chance."

"But this has always been my home," she said.

Poseidon laid his hand on her shoulder. "You have an understandable
emotional attachment to Olympus, but you're not thinking clearly. Many here
remain stuck in the past. You know they spoke the truth about a civil
war. Is Olympus worth that?"

"You're willing to leave Olympus forever?" she asked him.

"Yes, and for three reasons. One, Ronan is good and happens to have more
power than anyone else. That's a unique combination that doesn't often
happen, and I want to surround myself with good people. Two, when it comes
to those of us who have evolved versus those of us who haven't, by
necessity, it will fall to us to make the magnanimous gesture and give
Olympus to them. You know they haven't the capacity, and I can think of
myriad things I would rather do than fight to keep this place,
when... three, I want to continue evolving, and I've come as far as I can
here."

"You've made some valid points," she conceded, "...especially the last one;
I find myself in the same position. So, what's the plan?"

It seemed unlikely that Zeus would allow any of his subjects the freedom to
reject him as their king, leave, and carve out a new life for themselves
with Ronan. He would view it as usurping his dominance, and with it, his
power. So, what would Ronan do with Zeus? Ronan had no problem seeing the
king as one who perpetrated horrific crimes against his subjects and
deserved what would come to him, but Zeus had so much support that
dethroning him could cause more trouble than he's worth. He would have to
give it a lot of thought, but a clear plan seemed unattainable at that
moment.

It surprised Ronan that so many whom Zeus had tortured still supported him
and saw his ability to torture his subjects as his divine right as
king. They hadn't evolved enough to recognize how twisted that was.

The list of the ten people who wanted to leave because they had
evolved---including those absent---consisted of Poseidon (the god of the
oceans and seas), Athena (the virgin goddess of war, wisdom, and
knowledge). The Titan Prometheus, the god of fire and knowledge, as well as
the maker and champion of humanity), Dolos (the apprentice of Prometheus
and originally the god of deception, trickery, and craftiness), Demeter
(the goddess of the harvest, agriculture, and the fertility of the earth),
Chronos (the self-created primordial god of time), Ananke (the goddess of
necessity and inevitability), Aletheia (the goddess of the naked truth),
Apollo (adopted father of Chiron and the god of archery, poetry, dance,
music, healing, and many other things), and finally, Hestia (the virgin
goddess of home and hearth).

The reasons why ten others wanted to leave had more nuance, and Ronan took
each of them aside to ask them about it.

Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt, said, "Zeus tortured my twin
brother Apollo just for questioning him. That's all he had to do, and he
always made us watch. In secret, Zeus had become my enemy since then, so
when Apollo leaves, I will go with him."

At just five feet five, Eros, the hunky primordial god of carnal love and
son of Chaos, looked like the unconsciously seductive, twenty-four-year-old
blond swimmer who lived next door. He preoccupied the mind with an
irresistible crush that included an overt willingness to be an object of
his seduction. He told Ronan, "I'm indifferent to Zeus keeping the
throne. Although, I always recognized the torture as horrific. I'm a god of
love; it's beyond my nature to comprehend such barbarity. I want to leave
because I find the atmosphere of Olympus repulsive, with its hatred, anger,
and oppression. But not only that,"---he smiled looking Ronan up and
down---"I find you incredibly attractive, not just because of your body,
but because I sense an enormous wellspring of love inside you, and that
makes me smile."

Ronan couldn't help but find Eros charming. "That's kind of you," he
said. "I know that Aphrodite is your best friend, are you okay with her
remaining here?"

Eros sighed. "I understand it," he said. "She will remain because Ares
remains. Long ago, I had Ares once out of curiosity because Aphrodite kept
going back to him and couldn't seem to stop herself"---he began
whispering---"even when she was married to Hephaestus who---as I've
discovered---is one of the most sexually generous, attentive, and loving
gods I've ever known; not that Aphrodite would know, she never had sex with
him. In contrast, Ares's passion for carnality is positively savage, and
Aphrodite seems to enjoy that. For myself, I thought Ares was a bit
overblown. She never knew what she gave up with Hephaestus. He and I have
spent much time together."

Hebe, the wife of Heracles, also wanted to leave. She had begun having
nightmares from witnessing so much torture, and Heracles wanted to leave to
be with her and to get away from Hera. Their identical twin sons, Alexiares
and Anicetus, wanted to leave as well, feeling they would have a far better
life with Ronan and gave him their loyalty.

Dike, Eirene, and Eunomia just wanted some respect, and with Ronan, they
knew they would receive it.

Hephaestus, the god of the forge, stood naked before Ronan using a cane to
walk, and although he had the same height as Ronan, he had a body that one
wouldn't expect. It certainly hadn't lived up to an Olympian standard of
godhood. From the top, his head had gone almost bald, which is why he wore
a cloth cap. His forehead looked too wide, his brow ridges jutted too far,
his eyes looked too far apart, cheekbones too prominent, and his jaw too
large. He had an unbalanced musculature and an odd shape to his torso. His
lower half gave him an ungainly appearance, and his genitals looked to be
the size of the average human, which looked out of place on a god. His legs
looked thick with no definition, and of course, he had that wrong-turned
left foot.

He had a unique situation that encouraged his desire to leave. He had
conflicting stories of his parentage as well as conflicting reasons for
someone casting him from Olympus. The truth was that, just as Zeus liked to
take credit for impressive things in which he was not involved, he also
tended to deny his involvement in things out of convenience. Despite
whatever stories to the contrary, Zeus intentionally cursed the last child
Hera carried for him. That was Hephaestus. When she gave birth, the cursed
baby had the congenital defect of ugliness and a clubfoot. So, Zeus
obtained the imperfect child he secretly sought, just so he could reject
it, shame Hera, and vow to never lie with her again. He did this to give a
further excuse for his many infidelities, which resulted in heightening
Hera's vindictiveness against his paramours and their children. Out of
anger for his deformity---in true Hera fashion---she blamed the baby and
tossed him from Olympus where he eventually fell into the ocean. The
oceanid Eurynome, and the nereid Thetis---the mother of Achilles---found
Hephaestus, raised him on Lemnos, and they loved him dearly.

Eventually, Dionysus brought the adult Hephaestus back to Olympus, and he
remained the only god ever allowed to return after his ejection (Zeus only
allowed it to use him for his skills). At the time of his return, Zeus's
daughter, the beautiful Aphrodite had many suitors. So, to stop them from
fighting over her, Zeus forced her to marry Hephaestus simply because Zeus
knew she would never lie with him. As a result, she had affairs with many
others during their marriage, and since they hadn't a good union, it forced
Hephaestus to find affection elsewhere.

Hephaestus had one story told of him that besmirched his good name, and
that's the one involving the alleged attempted rape of Athena, but that
story never actually happened. It supposedly caused Hephaestus's semen to
strike the ground, resulting in a birth from the soil an early king of
Athens named Erichthonius. The king invented the story from whole cloth for
the sole purpose of fabricating himself some divine origins at the expense
of Hephaestus's reputation. In truth, Hephaestus, along with a tiny
minority of gods, had never harmed anyone of his own volition. Like many
others, he only did what Zeus made him do.

"Eros likes you a lot," said Ronan.

"Eros and I have been spending a lot of time together if you know what I
mean."

"So, you're no longer with Aglaea?" Ronan asked.

He shook his head. "Like Aphrodite, she cheated on me with Ares." He
shrugged a little. "I can't say that I blame her, Ares is so handsome, and
look at me. Eros has been the only one who sees beyond this."

Ronan glanced down at Hephaestus's foot. "Has no one tried to help you?"

"Zeus cursed me before my birth," he said. "He's too powerful; every
attempt to lift it has failed."

"And of course, Zeus is too much of a jerk to undo it himself. Would you
like me to do it?"

Hephaestus dropped his mouth open. "If you would try, I would be grateful."

"I won't just try; I will remove and reverse it. What Zeus did to you was
cruel. But first, I need to find what you would look like without the
curse. Hold onto me so you don't fall." Hephaestus held Ronan's shoulders
to steady himself.

When Ronan laid his hands on Hephaestus's chest, he closed his eyes and
concentrated to see in his mind beyond what Zeus had done to him. In the
distance, an image came racing toward him, and there he was. Tucked away in
another universe, over the farthest reaches of time and space, Ronan could
see him...Hephaestus, whole and glorious---the blue-collar god, the proud
symbol of skills and innovations born of the sweat and struggle of hard
labor. Beneath a covered workspace, he stood mostly naked before his anvil
near the flaming forge whose light cast shadows behind him. He pounded away
at a chunk of red-hot metal, while sweat ran down his sooty, lean,
well-balanced physique rippled with an astonishing quantity of fur-coated
sinews. He lifted the tongs to inspect the piece, and in its glow, Ronan
saw his face. He had short hair and beard, dark like the coals of his
forge, and a face that anyone lucky enough to have his love would have eyes
for no one else and would never conceive of sharing anyone else's bed. They
would look forward to every tender moment beneath him, his kiss, and his
loving embrace. The level of Zeus's disservice to Hephaestus was palpable,
and it upset Ronan.

He opened his eyes and gazed upon Hephaestus in amazement.

"Did you see me?" he asked.

"You're beyond belief." Ronan hugged Hephaestus and held onto him
tightly. "Brace yourself, removing and reversing Zeus's curse is likely to
hurt."

At that point, they had the attention of all those nearby who moved closer.

Ronan built up a surge of purifying energy and began bombarding Hephaestus
with it. With the light emanating from the blacksmith, the moment Ronan
removed the curse, a flash of darkness burst from his body causing him to
collapse, but Ronan held him aloft, as Henri had when Ronan accepted the
eternal flame.

The others shielded their eyes, the light outshining everything, like
standing near the sun. When it dimmed, Ronan settled Hephaestus upon his
feet. For the first time, they would hold him without assistance or
discomfort.

Ronan jostled him. "Wake up, buddy. It's done."

He opened his eyes and stood on his own. "Everyone, I would like you to
meet Hephaestus without Zeus's curse. When Ronan backed away, everyone had
a chance to see him whole for the first time, and they had more than just
shock upon their faces at how delectably handsome he was. They also
recognized it as just one more horrible thing that Zeus had done. In many
ways, he had tortured Hephaestus for his entire life.

"Is anyone else cursed?" asked Ronan.

"I know someone," said Alcides (formerly Heracles).

"Who?"

"Priapus," said Hestia. "Before he was born, Hera cursed him with ugliness,
foul-mindedness, and impotence because Paris (a prince of Troy) said that
Priapus's mother, Aphrodite, was more beautiful than she."

"I see...more petty vindictiveness. Well, where is he?"

"Because of the curse," she said, "which we could not remove, he was so
foul minded that he had nothing but lustful thoughts, and in his youth, he
tried to...well, let's just say that nothing happened because I woke up
before he even touched me. However, because he was a threat, we cast him
from Olympus. He lives on Earth now with Pan. I know the incident only
happened because of Hera. It would be in everyone's best interest if the
curse were lifted."

"Are you saying he tried to rape you?" asked Ronan.

Alcides spoke up. "Hera cursed me with a madness that caused me to kill my
first wife and my children, so I personally know what she can do. Please,
help him."

Ronan palmed his face. "Ugh...what a mess. Okay, I'll do that, and if there
are any others, bring them to me as well, but let us settle elsewhere
first. Before we do that, where is Zeus?"

"We just were discussing that," said Poseidon.

"He used lightning to ignite the fire beneath the bull," said Athena, "and
teleported immediately afterward."

"Where would he have gone?" asked Ronan.

"Maybe, he just left because he fears to face you," she said.

"Maybe. For now, I can think of nothing else that we can do with time
stopped unless any of you would like the time to pack before we leave."

They indicated they had nothing they couldn't reacquire.

Poseidon thumbed over his shoulder to the crowd left frozen in time. "What
will you do with them?"

"For the moment, I'll leave them that way when I restart time. I don't want
them plotting civil wars against anyone, after all, I prefer to leave them
in peace. Have you all someplace you can go where Zeus can't find you?"

"We have a house hidden from him on Earth," said Athena. "We can go there."

"Good. Hephaestus, would you accompany me, please? I will soon need your
input into our new location."

"I am here for anything you need of me, Ronan. You have my loyalty."

"I appreciate that, and I want you all to know that you have my loyalty,
and even those who I must leave frozen for now have my loyalty. I would
never do anything to harm any of you, that's just not who I am. I only
destroyed Kratos because he was a threat to the people I care about, and I
had no other options at the time. I have many options now, and the age of
hurting others, just because someone can, has ended with me. Through the
choices that you've made here, I will trust that you've learned that there
is another way to live, and I will hold each of you to that. As for those
frozen here, I won't hurt them, but at the same time, I cannot allow them
to hurt others, especially any of you and those on Earth. I will have to
think of some way to give them the freedom to live---and an opportunity to
evolve---while not allowing them to play havoc with everyone else by acting
on their nature. If any of you have ideas on how I might go about that, I
welcome some suggestions. I ask that you give it some thought. You may
think of something I cannot. Okay, here we go."

Ronan lifted his right hand to make an exception of those he intended to
keep frozen and snapped the fingers of his left hand. In an instant,
everything changed. The light from the sun shone all around them and felt
as though they stepped from a darkened room into the daylight, but as
little islands of stopped time, the light would not reflect from the frozen
gods standing nearby. They each appeared as a person-shaped black hole with
all frequencies of light vanishing upon them.

"Centaurian!"

The voice came from the golden doorway of the temple behind them. Ronan
turned to find Zeus standing as one might find the Colossus of Rhodes,
hands on his hips and legs astride the entryway of its harbor. The moment
he saw him, he raised his hand and froze Zeus in time just like the others.

"That was easy," said Poseidon.

"Too easy," said Ronan. "For now, at least, we know where he is. No one can
unlock any of them but Chronos and me."

"I have seen his look of satisfaction before," said Athena. "He's done
something."

"Like what?"

She turned her gaze upon Ronan and stared him in the face. "Something that
has made him comfortable enough to confront you."

"If he left the moment he lit the fire with the lightning, no more than
three minutes passed before I stopped time here."

"For him, that's more than enough."

"Right. Thank you, Athena." Inside his head, he heard his name
called. "Emma needs me. I must go to her. Let's go, Hephaestus." He took
him by the hand.

"Wait, we can't teleport from here," he told Ronan.

"Why not? Zeus did."

"It's part of the security for Olympus," said Dike, the goddess of Justice,
"only Zeus can teleport within Olympus without first passing through the
gate."

"Well, that's inconvenient," he said.

"You must break The Great Seal if you wish to leave any other way," she
said.

"Without knowing what form that it takes," he said, "I wouldn't know how to
do that."

"We'll take the shortcut to the gate," said Hephaestus.

-------

At the time of his birth, Elias Adrianus had the name Aquila (meaning
Eagle), a symbol of Zeus foisted upon the subconscious of the mother in an
act of the sky god taking credit for her child's existence. As with all
mortal beings, in time, Aquila's mother died, his wife died in childbirth
as did the baby, and every relationship he fostered seemed doom to failure
as those around him who hadn't died of disease, aged while he remained
unnaturally and inexplicably young. When the "how" of it came into question
by enough people---with no acceptable explanation---the necessity of faking
his own death arose (the first of many such occasions).

Over his lifetime, he had cast aside his birth name along with a string of
assumed aliases, and those new identities came with the hope that things
would improve, but they never could. So, with every arduous beginning---and
there were many---after the death of his third wife, and every child he
attempted to raise, the hope he occasionally felt, faded into the
reoccurring misery of having to face the onerous chore of another name,
another location, another attempt to fit in. The curse of his unwanted
immortality forced him to endure these pernicious disruptions with a
growing despondency in their wake.

Throughout his life, Elias had believed himself attracted to women, but
later, as his lust for living had waned, so had his lust for the female
sex. He, of course, had replaced it with a lust for money and power
attempting to find, if not meaning, then something to occupy his seeming
endlessness, but his attempt to fulfill his avaricious desires had also
grown tiresome. After nine-hundred and seventy years, he thought he had
done it all---all he deemed worthy of him, anyway---but then came his
transcendental sexual encounter with Felix Raposo. Afterward, he felt an
aching need to recreate that sense of joy and fulfillment that he had gone
without for more centuries than he cared to count. Suddenly, he had sexual
fantasies of every man he found even remotely attractive. Doubtless, they
wouldn't measure up; Felix had set the bar so high. Anyone would have
difficulty measuring up to Eros's specially blessed and beloved Lucky Fox,
but to have someone with whom he could share his bed sounded better than
having no one at all.

He had envisioned erotic scenarios with the handsome limo driver en route
to the Miami airport, the hunky co-pilot of his private jet in his fetching
uniform, the White House intern who---at the president's request---ensured
a rapid replacement of the passport he lost in the hotel's destruction, the
FBI investigator who questioned him about the incident at the hotel, and
even his own broad-shouldered administrative assistant who stood before his
mahogany office desk that morning. He held a curious expression when asked
how he and his husband were faring.

"Okay, who are you, and what have you done with my employer?"

Elias laughed. "Carl, how long have you known me?"

"Seven years, sir."

"And in all that time, have I ever asked about you and your husband?"

"Not once, sir."

"Well, I do beg that you forgive me that neglect and those years of my
Scrooge-like behavior. It had evolved over a lifetime, but it hasn't taken
a fright from three spirits and a major holiday to help me see the error of
my ways. Oddly enough, I credit the giver of a pink business card and the
care of a nineteen-year-old Puerto Rican bellhop named Felix Raposo for
saving me.

"It seems that I had acquired more power and personal wealth than I could
ever know what to do with, and I have come to the terrifying conclusion
that the allure of power is like a black hole. It has a pull so strong,
that it twists and distorts anyone who seeks it, until they grow so warped
it sucks the light from them entirely. That captivating singularity held me
in its clutches for too long, and I have a lot to make up for, but...I know
that it could never happen here. As an independent lobbyist for corporate
interests, this company is morally irredeemable. Its clientele is a
corruption of scoundrels, and you have no idea of the weight I bear for
having hurt so many people over the years by pandering to venal
politicians. So, as the sole owner of Adrianicus Ltd., I have no public
investors to answer to, and I'm shutting its doors for good. However, I am
doing right by my employees, and this morning I have given a generous
severance package to all the others, but you are my last." He handed him
the final Manila envelope from his briefcase and held up a white one the
size of a personal letter. "Only you receive one of these, and this is
added to the top of your severance. When was the last time you took a real
vacation, Carl?"

"Never, sir," he said. "Something always got in the way."

"I want you to know that I like you. I have always liked you. And I know
when this conversation ends, I have no right to ask you to do anything, so
I won't ask. I beg you and your good husband to take a proper vacation to
unplug." And this," he said, shaking the white envelope, "is to make up for
the last seven years of underwhelming bonuses I have given you. They
devalued what you have meant to me and this company. I took advantage of
you even when I knew you performed most of the heavy lifting here. I
sincerely apologize, and you have my word that I will never do that to
anyone again." He handed him the envelope, and Carl pulled a check from it.

"You're giving me forty-million dollars."

"That's right. This company functioned well because of you. I wanted to
give you four million for every year you've worked here, but they will
deduct an extraordinary amount of taxes from it, so I rounded up to ensure
you get the full twenty-eight million you're due, but it's more than that
after taxes. Please, take some of it and go on the best damn vacation
you've ever had, and I hope you have a marvelous time."

Completely flummoxed, Carl asked, "Sir, why are you doing this? Are you
dying?"

He smiled and laughed. "I understand why you ask, but it's funny to give a
man forty-million dollars only for him to ask why. And no, I'm not dying,
not yet anyway. It's just this is a new world, Carl, and this is a new
me. I'm about to take a flight to Milan to meet someone who I think will
give me what I have needed for a long time."

Off to the side and several paces behind Carl, a ponytailed blonde woman
wearing a white button-up shirt and skin-tight jeans faded into the room,
and Elias saw it happen.

"Ah! There you are," she said. She took a moment to concentrate and said,
"Ronan..." in a voice that she knew Ronan would hear.

Carl turned. "Ma'am, you can't come in here."

"It's alright, Carl," Elias said as he ushered him from the room. "I'll
take care of it. Thank you for all you've done over the years." Carl shook
Elias's hand, and the moment the door closed behind him, Elias asked the
woman, "And you are which goddess?"

She smiled. "It's complicated. I call myself Erastis, but for the moment,
you may call me Emma Nordstrom."

"You're Swedish?" he asked.

"Just for now. Ronan sent me to find you. He'll be along any time now."

"Why? I thought I would meet all of you in Milan. I looked forward to being
there, actually."

"Zeus tried to sink the container ship we traveled on, and almost killed
someone I care about, so our plans changed. Ronan left to save Poseidon
from Zeus's torture, and I don't know much beyond that. Things have moved
rather quickly."

"Is Ronan angry with me, after what happened?"

"No, not at all. And we're sorry to hear about Felix Raposo. Many of the
gods loved him, including me, and I've not heard the slightest hint of
grief over the destruction of Kakia. And you couldn't have known what would
happen when you stabbed her. I'm not sure that anyone could blame you, not
even Ronan. Did you know that you and Ronan are the only two people to ever
destroy a god?"

"Ronan destroyed a god?"

She nodded. "Kratos, the god of brute strength."

"Did he use a blade like the one I had?

"Oh, no, he wouldn't need it. I hope you get to know Ronan. He is the
kindest, most thoughtful, loving, and compassionate being I've ever known,
and that's just scratching the surface of how wonderful he is, but he's
also deadly dangerous to anyone who would harm the people he loves and
cares about. Kratos threatened the lives of everyone aboard the ship and
had threatened Liam in particular. He is Ronan's protector, his lover, and
no doubt, his future husband. So, Ronan vaporized Kratos."

"Vaporized?"

"There are temperatures that not even the matter and energy of a god can
withstand, but only Ronan is capable of producing."

"So, he's THAT powerful?"

"There's every reason to believe he's the most powerful being in the
universe, but he wouldn't want you to think of him in that light. He's just
Ronan. So, do him a favor and never mention how much power he has. He
prefers not to talk about it."

"Why would you tell me about it?"

"You must not realize how special you are."

A moment later, Ronan---wearing only pants and shoes---and a naked
Hephaestus teleported into the room.

Looking a bit frantic when he arrived, Ronan made a gasp as his eyes went
right to Elias, and he never deviated from looking at him. He snapped his
fingers and stopped time while giving the four of them a time-field. "Thank
you, Emma, for finding Elias. I have discovered that Zeus has done
something, and I worry that he's done something to Liam. However, I can't
be everywhere at once, and I must do this, Elias has waited over nine
hundred years, and this is well overdue. Elias, Emma, please meet
Hephaestus. Hephaestus, this is Erastis but, you can call her Emma. And
this man standing before me in this beautiful Armani three-piece suit is
Elias Adrianus...my son."

Hephaestus and Emma, who spoke to one another for a moment about the
blacksmith's appearance, stopped as Ronan had drawn their attention. Elias,
whose head reached Ronan's shoulders, couldn't take his eyes from Ronan,
who stood there staring down at him with a little smile. "Your son?" asked
Elias.

Ronan nodded. "I've never seen you before, but I remember your mother
through Chiron's memories, and I knew Henri. Looking at you now, I realize
that you resemble neither of them. You look like Chiron. Chiron and my
former human self are not only fully bonded, but unlike the others, they're
fully merged. Apparently, Henri couldn't feel you out in the world. If he
could have, he wouldn't have believed you died long ago. Standing this
close to you, I feel you so strongly, it's almost overwhelming."

Emma spoke up, "But I thought that Henri and the others were bound to
Chiron."

"They were," said Ronan, "but it couldn't have been in the way I am. Chiron
and the flame would be transferred every thousand years, so it couldn't be
permanent, so a difference had to exist. With me, it's permanent, and
there's no going back."

Elias told him, "You're bigger and taller than I thought. I'm sorry I
allowed Kakia to entice me into thinking that murdering you was the best
solution to my problems."

That's okay," said Ronan as he smiled a little, "Kakia had a reputation for
tempting people into doing evil and horrible things, so I would never hold
it against you, but I hear you wanted to speak with me."

"Yes, I had wanted to ask if you would take my immortality, so I could grow
old and die."

Ronan hesitated. "I see. Why don't we sit and talk for a few minutes?" He
gestured to the couch in the seating area. Emma and Hephaestus stood by and
listened to them.

Once seated, Elias asked, "Why can't I feel you? If you're my father,
shouldn't I be able to feel you too?"

"That's a fair question," said Ronan and turned to Emma and
Hephaestus. "Why do you think that is?" Ronan waved them into the wingbacks
across the seating area from the couch, and they took a chair.

"He needs Ambrosia," said Hephaestus. "If he's Chiron's son, he can carry
power, but he must have just enough to protect his body and make him
immortal, and nothing else. Ambrosia should fix that problem."

"I agree," said Emma. "He needs charging up."

"He just asked me to take his immortality from him, so he could die one
day. Ambrosia would carry him in a direction, he may not wish to go."

"Why did you leave us?" Elias asked. "Mother was heartbroken, and I have
needed you the last nine hundred and seventy years."

"I'm sorry." Ronan shook his head a little. "I probably have no
satisfactory answer for that. From all that I remember, Henri and your
mother had been together for quite a while, and she had reached the end of
her ability to have a child. She used to beg Henri to have his baby. And
this may be supposition on my part, but because of Henri's nature---he
wasn't really human anymore---he had no control over having
children. However, as the one fully bound to the creative power of the
eternal flame, Chiron did. He could have made you fully human and mortal,
but he had experienced what it was like to almost die when Zeus took his
immortality, and Prometheus saved him. Having gotten that second chance, he
knew that life is invaluable, and so long as someone had their health, it's
invariably better than death. To a mortal, nine hundred and seventy years
sounds like a long time, but as an immortal, you've not even experienced a
drop of time in the ocean of eternity. I cannot undo what you've gone
through, and I cannot make up for my absence. Unfortunately, atrocious
childhoods and intolerable periods of time are ubiquitous among the gods."

"Among the gods..." he said.

"I'm sorry," said Ronan. "Do you even know what you are?"

"Not really. All this is still new. You would need to be specific and spell
it out for me."

"You are the immortal demigod son of Chiron the centaur, so you are half
human and half centaur. My name is Ronan Stallion, and Chiron is the
Stallion part of me, which makes you my son. You are grandson to the Titan
Cronus, and nephew to the six main Olympians, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades,
Demeter, Hera, and Hestia. You are first cousin to all their children, like
Hephaestus sitting there. You're also a distant cousin of Emma. If I were
you, I wouldn't trust all my relatives, but you could trust those who stand
with me."

Elias sat there beside Ronan in a daze. "So, I have an actual family."

"That's right, and to ask me to take your immortality is to ask me to
sacrifice you when you have an opportunity from this point onward to have a
life with your divine family that mortals could never dream
possible. However, this decision must be your own."

Elias watched in wonder as his father manifested on the coffee table before
them a transparent sixteen-ounce crystal goblet. Ronan ran his finger
around the rim as he spoke to Elias causing it to vibrate in a musical
tone, and as it filled from the bottom in a line of embering with a
honey-colored liquid suspended with gold flecks of pure creative energy,
the tone rose in pitch as the glass filled to three-quarters full. "If you
embrace who you are, you can have a brand-new experience of your immortal
life, one with all the things you could want in abundance, a father, a
family, love, stability, support, an opportunity to grow, and a new name
that has a connection to who you are. You could put the past behind you, we
could pick up from here, and I could show you what a beautiful and
fulfilling life you could have. Or..."---Ronan sat back with his hands in
his lap and turned to Elias---"or you can have what you said you
wanted. You can reject who you are. I could make you fully human with
mortality, vulnerability, and all that entails. To do that, I would have to
remove from you all that makes you divine. At that point, you would
experience occasional illness, injury, suffering, and one day you would
die."

"Wow, you make mortality sound like fun," said Elias in sarcasm. "Why are
you doing this?"

"Because you're my son, and if I love you, then I should not control you,
but at the same time, it would be heartless of me to not give you this
chance. I couldn't be here before, but I'm here now, and I would love for
you to stay with me."

"If I choose to be with you. What if one day I change my mind?"

"That's another benefit of being my son. It would break my heart then,
rather than now, but I would give you what you want. At least then, I would
know you had tried, but I suspect, just a little time with me, and you
would never want to leave. All the things that have made life so
intolerable for you would end. I can't give you the perfection of a placid
life, there would be challenges, good times and bad. But you will not be
alone, and I will love you more than any son could hope of their father."

Elias sat there a moment trying to control his breath and his emotions,
blinking away the wet from his eyes. "That's all I've ever wanted," he
said, and Ronan hugged him as Elias sniffled. "If I drank the Ambrosia,
what would it do to me? You said I'm half centaur. Would I end up with
hooves?"

He sat back and thought about it. "I don't know. Fortunately, you wouldn't
have to go through the unpleasant process of apotheosis as Liam had; being
my son, you are already a demigod. I suspect that most of the typical
demigod powers and centaur characteristics are lying dormant until you
power up. At that point, they should manifest themselves. I don't know how
much ambrosia it will take to fully charge you or how fast the changes will
manifest, but I can pretty much guarantee changes will occur. I can have
hooves if I want them, and they're pretty cool, but I admit, they're less
versatile than human feet, so if you end up hoofed and don't want them, I
can change it."

"If I end up with drastically apparent changes, how would I explain that to
anyone who knows me?"

"Don't worry about it; I'll take care of it. If you want, you can leave
Elias Adrianus behind. You can take on a new name with this new life, and I
can make it where no one remembers you other than with the new name and
appearance, all else will remain the same."

"So, you can do all that," said Elias, "...and you're my father."

"Yep. You're welcome to take my surname if you want. But please, never be
afraid to tell anyone that I'm your father because I will never deny that
you're my son. Being my son means you no longer have to run when people
wonder why you're still in your late 20s. I won't get older, none of our
family will get older, and neither will you, which means everyone will just
have to accept us as we are and move on."

"I hated having to reset my life every so often."

"This time don't think of it as resetting your life. Think of it as finally
leaving all that behind to join the family that loves and wants you. If you
want this to be permanent, it is."

Elias took a deep breath and laughed a little. "I can't believe I'm doing
this because I had my mind set on dying one day, but okay, I'll take the
Ambrosia."

"You might want to get out of that suit first. It could grow tight rather
quickly."

"What about Cousin Emma over here?"

"If you're shy, she's a goddess, she's seen more cock than you can
imagine. You might be surprised at how many gods never wear clothing."

"I never do," said Hephaestus.

Ronan asked him, "If I asked you to wear clothing when it was important,
would you?"

A broad smile bloomed on Hephaestus's handsome face. "After what you've
done for me, I will do anything you ask of me."

Emma told Elias, "I saw you naked on the beach when the hotel was
destroyed. It would be nothing new."

"Oh, very well." He stood and began removing his clothing. He laid his
jacket on the back of the couch. "I'm glad you stopped time, so no one will
interrupt this."

"I should tell you, I have only one rule for anyone I help this way. Never
use the power I give you for evil. So, don't go out of your way to hurt
people, you can lose what I give you."

Elias unbuttoned his vest and nodded a little. "I understand. You have
people to protect, just as you would protect me. That's a rock bottom, bare
minimum thing to ask, and I think that's more than fair."

"Thank you for saying that son. That means a lot to me."

"I think I like you calling me son." Elias tried to smile as he loosened
his tie and removed it. "May, I call you Father?"

"You sure can."

Elias began unbuttoning his shirt, smiled, and shook his head a
little. "All this feels so strange, and you're right, if I'm going to do
this, why not go all the way and just change my name as well? Over the
years, I invented so many names for myself, and I often wanted to break up
the monotony by going with something unusual, but I always chickened out
and went with something sedate and boring. When I chose Elias Adrianus, I
just liked the sound of it."

"It's a nice name," said Emma.

He shrugged, and nodded a little, removing his shirt. "And I'm not attached
to it any more than my previous names, and I've had so many. They held no
meaning for me, and the name Aquila was awful. I couldn't imagine why
mother named me that."

"I'm certain Zeus made her do it," said Ronan. "It means Eagle, one of
Zeus's symbols."

"It figures." He untied his shoes, kicked them off, and removed his socks.

"So," said Hephaestus, "what name would you like to have?"

"If I'm half centaur, Something Something Stallion seems appropriate." He
pulled off his pants and underwear together, and his penis dangled a bit
more than halfway down his thigh.

"Well, aren't you just a chip off the old cock," said Ronan. "Is that what,
ten inches?"

Elias nodded. "And twelve erect."

"That's a decent size for a colt like you, but don't be surprised if that
changes with the Ambrosia."

"Really? How big are you?"

"Sixteen."

"Wow...that's definitely horse-like, but I'll accept whatever happens with
it."

"You have no body hair at all," said Hephaestus.

"Yeah, and I never understood why," said Elias. "Also, I've always just had
the average body type."

"I suspect," said Ronan, "all that was intentional. It makes you look more
human."

Elias picked up the Ambrosia.

"That's a special glass," said Ronan. "Drink it all, and it will refill
itself, so keep drinking entire glasses of it until you just can't drink
more."

Elias tipped it back and the instant it touched his tongue, he began
chugging it. He couldn't believe the taste and planned to drink a lot more
before he even finished downing the first glass. "That was delicious!" He
held the glass vertical, and it began to fill from the bottom with
Ambrosia. Within moments he felt it, and it grew in intensity, he told
Ronan, "I think I'm starting to feel you!" He began to drink more.

"It's likely to grow stronger."

Hephaestus said, "I thought no one could manifest Ambrosia."

"Ronan is the exception," said Emma.

They watched as Elias guzzled one glass after another of the golden liquid,
and his body absorbed it immediately like every cell had become an energy
sponge. The more he drank, the more his body changed. His muscles grew, his
body hair came in, the configuration looking just like Ronan's. He had the
same reddish-brown hair color as Chiron. A chest full of curls began
appearing, and a much thicker pelt of hair---almost fur-like---filled in
from his iliac furrow downward, and like Ronan, it covered his buttocks,
but he had no pubic hair and none on his genitals.

Unlike Liam, Elias never seemed to look bloated and full. He just grew
bigger with every glass. He downed three glasses, five, eight, but by the
time he reached ten, he had to stop, leaving the goblet mostly
full. Hephaestus reached for it, Elias handed it to him, and the blacksmith
began chugging as much as he could.

"Wow," said Elias to Ronan, "my being close to you is so distracting!"

"I think we'll grow accustomed to it over time. I thought when I gave Liam
and William a spark like yours to protect them and make them invulnerable,
I would feel them the way I feel you, but I don't. It's just your singular
presence out in the world. They're not my son, I guess that's the
difference."

Elias gestured to his body. "So, how big am I?

"You look about the size of a professional gymnast ready for the Olympics,"
said Ronan, "but how do you feel?"

"Incredible. And I'm still growing; I can feel it. I'm glad I removed the
suit. Sadly, I have a closet at home full of expensive and unwearable
Armani."

"Which would you rather have," asked Ronan, "this or the suits?"

"No contest, this. Absolutely, THIS." He bent over and put his hands on his
knees as he stood there. "Well, I see no hooves coming in, so I think I
might have dodged that bullet, but my body hair is strange, and look at
this thing!" He lifted his cock from his newly muscled thighs. "It's gained
a couple of inches. So, overall, how do I look?"

"You look like a handsome, very fit half-centaur," said Emma. "I'd fuck
you."

Elias's brows rose. "You're my cousin, and I'm not from the backwoods of
Appalachia!"

They all laughed.

"Boy, are you in for a shock when you learn more about the gods," she said.

"After Felix Raposo, I'm not sure I'm much interested in women, at least
for now. I am probably bisexual though."

"Most of the gods are just sexual," said Hephaestus.

Ronan stood next to him. "You're an inch or so taller, but you've yet to
reach demigod proportions. We'll keep working on it." He held his hand out
to Hephaestus who almost finished off his fourth glass of
Ambrosia. "Glass..."

Hephaestus handed it to him. "That's the strongest, best-tasting Ambrosia
I've ever had."

"That's because it's fresh." From a line of embering, the glass and its
remnants burned away to Ronan's hand. He then placed the hand on Elias's
shoulder where he manifested the current Centaurian uniform for Elias to
wear and manifested his own shirt with CENTAURIAN across his chest, and
above it, he placed the symbol identical in size and shape to the tattoo on
his back.

Elias adjusted his cock in his pants and tapped the blank space on his own
chest. "What about something for right here?"

"What would you like?"

"I don't know," he said. "Aren't sons usually named by their fathers? Why
don't you name me?"

"Alright," he said and thought about it for a moment. He realized he used
the perfect name for him earlier. He held his finger before his son's chest
and said, "I dub thee, my son, Colt Stallion." He laid his finger on the
cloth and a line of embering stitched COLT upon it in a navy-colored
thread, below which he had placed a half-sized Centaurian symbol. "If
you're wondering, that's my symbol. On Earth, everyone, everywhere who has
ever known you as Elias Adrianus has now only ever known you as Colt
Stallion, and even your IDs are changed.

He stood there open-mouthed. "I'm blown away you can do that so easily." He
hugged Ronan. "Thank you."

Ronan pulled back and put his arm around him. "I need to catch Emma and you
up on what's happened. I froze Zeus in time on Olympus. As I said before,
he's done something, but I don't know what. It may have to do with
Liam. Emma, had you seen anything unusual before you came here?"

"Liam had gone to the cabin you shared, I kissed William goodbye before I
went in search of Colt, and nothing seemed any different when I left."

"Okay," Ronan turned to Colt. "If you have anything to bring, you should
get it. We need to get to the ship and look around."

As Colt retrieved his smartphone, wallet, and passport, tucking them into
the waistband of his pants, Hephaestus manifested a uniform like Ronan's
with HEPHAESTUS across his chest with an anvil and hammer symbol above it.

"Very nice," said Ronan.

"I'll get used to it."

"I'm ready when you are," said Colt.

Once Ronan restarted time, he took his son's hand. As they formed a line
and stepped forward a few paces, the office they stood in rapidly blended
into the hallway of the ship just outside the cabins, and as they completed
the teleportation, the office faded away.

"That sure beats air travel," said Colt.

They checked the cabins, and both lay empty.

"This is a big ship," said Ronan. "Let's get to the bridge and page him
from there." He raced up the staircase two steps at a time, the others on
his heels.

They reached the bridge and found William there in his Centaurian uniform
with the crew.

"Ronan!" said the captain. "William tells me that you restored the
ship. Thank you."

"You're welcome, captain. This is Hephaestus and this is my son, Colt. Has
either of you seen Liam? Have there been any strange occurrences apart from
the ship's renewal and the fact that I moved us to Genoa?"

"I'm glad you asked," said William. "I have looked for Liam, and I can't
seem to find him. I just paged him a minute ago. I've heard nothing so
far."

"Nothing else has occurred that we've noticed," said the captain.

"I've stopped time twice since I left and little actual time has passed
from then until now. He should be here."

"It's as we feared," said Emma, "Zeus has done something with him."

Ronan could feel the anger swell inside him, and he knew he would need
help. "Emma, William, Hephaestus, Colt, I need you to come with me. We're
going to Olympus to confront Zeus."

William asked, "What could we do to help against Zeus?"

He looked them in their faces. "I need you there because your presence will
stop me from doing something stupid that I'll regret."