It is said that the original pronunciation of Keton was Geton. *Ge* means earth, and *ton* comes from an ancient word meaning lightning and destruction. It is said the name Gaia also comes from *Gea*.
One might wonder what kind of combination that is, but if you examine their birth, you will easily be convinced.
At first, she was nothing more than a being representing the conflict between Chaos and Order.
The two creators floated within the inorganic matter. For thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of millions of years—countless ages, endlessly.
The feeble, repetitive act of inhaling the void and nothingness, then exhaling like gas, continued. In a space where dark, damp, and scattered light irregularly brushed past, flashed, and perished.
Had they grown weary of that long passage of time? Their meaningless battle of wills had been foreseen from the moment light and darkness were born.
Chaos and Order competed over everything.
The byproducts of the resources they drew upon to overcome each other fell endlessly like a waterfall into the primordial soil.
Discarded dregs and filth, like a pelting stream of water striking the crown of a head. They seeped one by one into her particles.
Her body, once small and soft as down, continued to swell. All manner of forces and energies flooded into her body like groundwater breaking through bedrock and rushing into her lungs.
She did not even know what she was.
Like a seed drifting everywhere in the world by flooded rivers, she simply lived by boiling curiosity and vitality alone.
Volcanoes erupted, earthquakes and tidal waves repeated. This land was suffering from terrible labor pains. Yet even amid such desolation, she witnessed the collisions between Chaos and Order time and again. To her, their acts were what mattered most. Thus, she took in every bit with her eyes and engraved them into memory, missing nothing.
One day, while she slept curled up, Chaos approached secretly and whispered.
"Wake up, Gaia. I need your help."
His voice succeeded in gathering her consciousness, which had been spread like a net, into one.
Gaia.
By Chaos, who called her so and met her gaze, she realized—like a flash of lightning—that she existed here, now.
"You have taken root here. How admirable."
She realized she could converse with someone. At the same time, she learned that she herself was a beautiful tree.
"Order will not come for you. From Order's perspective, you are merely a failure. No, Order would treat you worse than that. If only the byproducts It discarded remained, Order might have gathered them, but since the byproducts I discarded are mixed in as well, Order would find it exceedingly repulsive."
Though it may have been her imagination, wonder dwelt in his gaze as he looked at her.
"It is wondrous enough that the byproducts we both discarded gathered together and took root in the primordial soil, but your infinite vitality and latent abilities are truly astounding."
It must have been something neither of the two creators had predicted. Discarded trash had mingled with the world's soil to become a single living being and achieve an ego.
Gaia felt proud, but Chaos seemed to be thinking something else.
"I am one who likes errors that arise unintentionally. I value results that deviate from my predictions above all else. Therefore, Gaia, you are the greatest gift to me."
He seemed to still think of her as something belonging to him.
She was primordial soil, compost, river water, seed, leaf, fruit, life.
Though she harbored thoughts of her own, she neither argued with him nor refused the hand he extended.
Chaos was one of the creators who had made her, the one who had discovered her, and also the being who had given her the name Gaia and called her by it first.
Chaos was her mother and father in both name and reality.
When he reached out his hand, the massive tree trunk split wide open. The branches that had been like limbs lost their strength, and the leaves that had gathered sunlight every day withered and twisted as if rotting in an instant, falling like autumn leaves. The thick roots firmly anchored beneath the earth shriveled as if wrinkling, losing their moisture.
She absorbed all the nutrients and moisture from the tree bark, then carefully walked out through the cracked fissure. Her damp skin and hair were wrapped in a film of moisture like a newborn baby.
Her hair, having absorbed the sunset light hiding beyond the western mountain, fluttered as if burning red.
Chaos opened his mouth in a satisfied tone.
"Welcome, my daughter."
And so she became the first Keton.
Ψ
Chaos led Gaia into the throat of Erebus.
She walked as if floating through black smoke. It was probably Chaos's breath.
She followed the direction where the darkness coughed coldly. Layer upon layer of pitch-black gloom surrounded them like valleys.
That place, like an abyss spread within a narrow, deep well, was the womb of Erebus where distant darkness surged.
Powers raging like storms growled at each other's rivalry. They caused supernatural phenomena such as lightning strikes everywhere and committed destruction indiscriminately.
"Here, my children are growing."
Chaos said proudly. Where he looked, crouched souls shone like jewels.
"Can you help these children be born well?"
"It is not difficult, but neither is it easy."
"That is why I ask it of you. Wise Gaia, you who were born of your own accord."
"It was not I who made myself exist."
"Then do you mean me?"
"It was not by your strength alone."
"Then do you mean Order and me?"
Chaos made an intrigued expression. "If so, are you the child of Order and me?"
Instead of answering, Gaia approached the sleeping souls and sat on her knees beside them. Each one of them was a work Chaos had crafted with all his heart.
"I am pleased to meet you, my brothers and sisters."
She whispered in an intimate voice. She could intuitively tell. That they would be born safely and live holding infinite glory like the sun risen in the sky.
As she had predicted, the Ketons became the masters of all things. They were called gods in place of the creators, enjoying that authority and flaunting their presence.
Order lost interest in the world.
He gazed at the humans he had so loved and cared for with increasingly indifferent eyes, then said irritably.
"It is but a tedious sight."
Then, like a snail casting off its shell, he entered into a waterfall of light.
Chaos said that once Order entered that place, he would not come out until heaven and earth overturned and mountains and seas were turned upside down.
Gaia asked with a worried face.
"Then what becomes of the humans?"
Chaos glanced over the world with eyes steeped in darkness and answered.
"They will lose Order."
As expected, humans fell into chaos. Plunging into a dark age as if sinking into a swamp, they suffered from natural disasters that struck one after another, threats from beasts, and unknown diseases.
The weak among them collapsed in an instant. Everything regressed, and only the wicked survived. Losing hope was a terrifying thing.
Gaia, watching them pitifully, shed tears without realizing it. She did not know the reason, but sorrow washed over her.
She wondered what she could do for them. Ketons were beings so perfect by their very existence that they would cast aside even what they held in their hands; thus, it would not be a great problem if they shared some of what they possessed.
But there was one who did not welcome this: Nyx.
He not only secretly smashed the gift jars she had prepared for the humans but even followed her to the village and kept watch.
Gaia paid no heed and went down the sloping path carrying the gift jars on her head. Nyx's pupils, watching her retreating figure from behind, were engulfed in anxiety and hatred, like one glaring at a mother abandoning him.
He was the child drawn out latest from the womb of Erebus because of that deficiency and anxiety; why, then, did he confine himself in solitude and seek to destroy himself?
In the end, Nyx could not endure and began to harm them.
His reasons were varied. Humans who tried to do terrible things to his Gaia, humans who did not know to be grateful to Gaia who bestowed everything, humans who betrayed and fled from Gaia who had given them her companionship.
He packaged his possessiveness thus. Instead of screaming that they should look only at him, he pointed out the insolence of humans and displayed it on the surface.
According to his logic, humans were beings deserving punishment. Beings deserving contempt, beings deserving to be torn apart and killed.
He bestowed a measure of his authority upon fanatical devotees who feared his power. They became Maenads and harmed fellow humans. Nyx rejoiced. He said it was just as well, for he found even killing them with his own hands repulsive.
Humans naturally felt the terror of night. Those tainted by madness always appeared at night. Or they were lured and disappeared at night.
"The god of night and darkness is punishing us. Nysa is his altar. Hades is his land."
"Yes, all of this is because of Pandora."
Nyx's whisper burrowed into their minds. People with eyes red as charcoal not only cursed her jars, which they had once regarded as blessings, but began to throw and smash them.
Alone, Gaia raised the fallen stone statue and gathered the broken jar pieces, cradling them in her arms. Looking at her, Nyx's gaze was full of displeasure.
Why on earth? What are humans, really?
Gaia, her eyes meeting Nyx's for a moment, looked utterly exhausted. She wanted to beg him to stop, but Nyx's bloodshot eyes, increasingly losing reason, glared beyond her shoulder.
"I will not stop. I will never stop until all the humans of this land are dead and gone. I will not let stand anything that steals Gaia from me."
Humans offered sacrifices soaked in salt and wine to the god of darkness and prayed with clasped hands, but Nyx sent flocks of carrion crows to peck at the backs of the prostrated people with their beaks. He twisted his lips into a smile as he watched people scream and flee.
Then one day.
Gaia opened the door of an old temple and entered, powerless like a young deer avoiding rain. She bolted the red-painted wooden door and closed it tight. With a heart wishing that not just the wind but also their malice would be blocked.
"I was here first."
A thick voice came from inside where the altar was. Startled, she turned around and clutched her chest. A Keton fearing humans? It was a situation her kin would snort at if they knew. Perhaps excluding only one person—my wise and beautiful friend Ananke.
"I see, I shall go elsewhere. Forgive me for disturbing your rest."
"Haha, it was a jest. Where is there a master in a god's dwelling? It is a place of rest for us all. By the way, my name is Kakeitos, but you are?"
"..."
"If it is difficult to speak, you need not."
He waved his hand as if to say it was fine. The clothes draped on his body looked precious, but his words and conduct were as rustic as any farmer's.
She asked carefully.
"What were you doing in the god's dwelling?"
"I was praying. I have a younger sister, but she is still young, so I am performing the duties she should carry out in her stead. Yet it seems I can do nothing right; it is quite unsightly."
"So you prayed to the goddess to perform them in your stead?"
He made an expression at Gaia's words as if to say what nonsense, then burst into laughter. Though she had not spoken to amuse him.
"How could that be? It would be more than I could ask if the Mother Goddess were to become the King of Demeter... but I know such a thing is impossible even in dreams."
King of Demeter? Gaia finally examined the temple interior closely. Many murals were painted. Damaged by dust and filth, but still discernible.
A farmer with skin blackened by the sun was shown paving the house yard with flagstones and spreading out bundles of wheat. The next picture showed a draft animal tied to a post with a long rope treading wheat bundles in circles. It was a scene of threshing wheat while praying to the Mother Goddess for abundance.
On the left wall was painted a scene of an old Maia entering the house of a pregnant woman in full term.
Inside the house, a midwife held the mother's legs and assisted the birth, while outside people applied pine resin to the mother's house to drive away bad energy and prayed for protection from filth and evil.
Women bringing olive branches to hang on the door when the child was born, and woolen headbands, were also depicted.
Only then did she realize.
This was a temple for her. *O Goddess of abundance and fertility, bless us.* Earnest voices seemed to ring in her ears.
That man was a king who had come to pray to Gaia. His younger sister was one who would ascend the throne and lead Demeter in the future. What was her name? Amphita, yes, it was Amphita. He was a regent king temporarily holding the crown for his young sister.
Regent King Kakeitos, when the late king brought you and your sister Amphita to the temple to burn incense, I too disguised myself as one of the priests and secretly watched. So that young boy has grown into such a fine man.
"I merely wished to lay everything bare to the Mother Goddess. I sent away even my close attendants to speak quietly, but just then you opened the door and came in. At first I thought the Mother Goddess had answered my call. Your appearance, entering wrapped in light, looked exactly like Gaia herself..."
Laughter leaked through her lips. She felt as if she had eavesdropped on a joke only she could understand. Gaia cleared her throat and struggled to compose her expression nonchalantly.
"Your name... may I ask again?"
Gaia hesitated. What if this man too throws stones at me? What if he shouts "cursed maiden goddess" with eyes full of rage? She opened her mouth in the end, filled with anxiety.
"I am called Pandora."
His eyes were calm. He chewed on her name once and simply held a smile.
"I know this question may sound strange, but have we met somewhere before?"
"I do not think so."
"I do not know why you seem so familiar."
"Do you frequent the Temple of Gaia?"
"Of course. I greet the Mother Goddess every day."
"That must be why."
"I do not understand what you mean."
"It means this is our first time seeing each other, but not our first time meeting."
"You speak only in riddles."
"The words of a god have no form, so they make each person harbor different thoughts. It is best not to try too hard to interpret them."
"Even more of a riddle. Are you saying your words are those of a god?"
"My throat exists to convey the words of gods."
Kakeitos's eyes widened, filled with wonder. He struck his forehead as if blaming his own dullness and let out an exclamation.
"That's right, now I remember! I heard there is a priestess named Pandora in the west. I have certainly heard of her."
Gaia's pupils shook with despair. Just then, the excited Kakeitos went "Urgh!" and clutched his abdomen.
"Are you injured somewhere?"
"Just something from battle..."
Kakeitos's hand was drenched in blood as he got up, breathing heavily.
"The wound is grave."
Gaia reached him in a few steps. Kakeitos's eyes widened in surprise at her walking speed, as if she had teleported.
Gaia, who had unwittingly moved like a Keton, examined his wound closely.
"Close your eyes."
"Pardon?"
"I said close your eyes if you wish to live."
Kakeitos closed his eyes, cold sweat trickling down. Beyond his eyelids, a dazzling golden light seemed to burst forth.
And sleep poured over him.
Before losing consciousness, he grasped her arm with all his might. "Pandora, Pandora... will you not stay by my side?" His pleading voice scattered in his dimming vision. It seemed she was staring this way.
"Do not worry and rest well. Everything will be better after a good sleep."
For a moment, her tone seemed to have changed, but before he could check, his mind grew hazy. Only, he felt that the voice he had found slightly arrogant just now seemed to be her true self.
Storms raged all night.
When the sun rose again and the day brightened, soldiers waiting outside for the king peeked at the temple's doorposts.
Gaia rubbed a sleep-inducing herb between her hands, crushed it, and scattered it into the blowing wind. Smelling the herb, they thudded to the ground and fell asleep.
She glanced at Kakeitos lying on a straw pile covered with a blanket. He was a man who slept straight without a single bad habit. Occasionally he mumbled, perhaps dreaming, his sister's name.
The red sun set and dusk crept in. The flames burning in a bronze brazier warmly lit the temple interior.
Kakeitos opened his eyes and sprang upright. His eyes, roving around, widened, filled with joy.
She was sitting on a rectangular windowsill in the temple, looking up at the ink-colored sky. Her red hair fluttering faintly in the wind was as beautiful as flames.
"Pandora..."
His voice, split with joy, held laughter. Then, coming to his senses, he touched his abdomen. The deep wound had completely healed. There was almost no pain.
Kakeitos stared at Gaia with a blank expression. He tried to think of an answer with all his knowledge and experience, but naturally, none came.
Then something caught his eye.
"Your hand... why is it like that?"
Her hand had turned dark red. The knuckles of her fingers were turning to sand-like powder, losing their form.
"It seems I used my strength a bit excessively. It can be fixed, so do not worry."
Upon hearing that, Kakeitos finally seemed to realize something. He quickly came down to the floor, knelt, and pressed his forehead to the ground.
"I-I beg your pardon for not recognizing you. I have committed great blasphemy against the Mother Goddess. Please forgive me."
"I am but a priestess from a remote village."
"..."
"Many people of Demeter have died because of me. I am sorry."
"What do you mean..."
Kakeitos, raising his head, found tears welling in her eyes.
The goddess of the broken body shed clear tears endlessly. Sand and dust from her crumbling hand fell onto the back of his hand. The moment he felt warmth, the traces disappeared like smoke.
Kakeitos rose blankly. He hesitated, then approached and drew her into his arms.
"Please do not cry. I do not know why, but... it feels as though my heart is being torn apart."
Gaia, held in his arms, shed tears and eventually wept aloud. At the sound of her weeping, the earth outside the temple groaned and the trees sobbed.
The temple interior, burning with myrrh, was cozy. Perhaps it was thanks to the heat they exchanged with each other warming their bodies.
By dawn, the wind had quieted, and the scent of flowers drifted from somewhere.
Realizing it was the scent of his beloved in his arms, Kakeitos felt as if a waterfall were falling in his chest.
Eos, having spied on the lovers' intimacy, closed the gates of heaven and vanished. Her sigh became dark storm clouds, leaving a trailing tail. The sun god, seeing this, did not emerge with his chariot, so troubled was he.
Rain poured down once more. Nyx hated the rain. Gaia looked up at the sky and felt relief that she could set aside her worries for a moment.
It was about half a month later that they left the old temple.
Ψ
When young Amphita was asked who her favorite person in the world was, she answered robustly without a moment's hesitation: "Brother Kakeitos!"
Everyone was happy at her answer, and especially Kakeitos, with a vivid smile, hugged his one and only sister and lifted her high into the air.
For Amphita, who had lost her parents early, Kakeitos could be said to be everything that constituted family.
His black hair resembling his father exactly, and his eyes as if a ladleful of the night sky had been scooped and poured into them, were elegant and beautiful like a male god upon an altar, and were her pride.
When he ascended to the position of regent in her stead, Amphita was sincerely delighted. She rather wished her brother would sit upon the throne forever. Demeter would be peaceful under the protection of the gods, and the world would be fair yet kind.
But only three years later, Hades led a black army and invaded.
Rumors of the army of death called Thanatos had spread abundantly even in Side.
Kakeitos said he would go to the front lines and took out golden armor to wear. Amphita, having eavesdropped on the council of elders' meeting, ran to stop him.
"Everyone is talking about brother's death. They say if brother goes out to war and dies, I—still young—will ascend the throne. Then they're already discussing what to do next and all that!"
Kakeitos silently embraced Amphita. He was the regent king. Nothing more than a body to briefly warm the throne until his sister, the legitimate successor, grew up.
Seeing the resolve reflected in his eyes, Amphita rubbed her eyelids with the back of her hand.
"I understand. Then I'm coming too. If I go with you, the council of elders will have no choice but to deploy more troops."
"The future Anassa cannot go to such a dangerous place."
"Who would dare defy my will? If I go, I go."
He smiled as if to say there was no helping it. Even the late king and father could not dissuade Amphita's stubbornness.
"Very well, but the battlefield is out of the question. Even if just as a precaution, you must always be in a safe place in the rear."
Around the height of the season of fire, Kakeitos confronted Hades's forces in the western borderlands and fought two battles. Though the enemy's forces were not many, the Demeter army was utterly defeated.
The allied forces were nearly annihilated, and Kakeitos, who had sortied personally, was known to have barely escaped under the escort of his close attendants. However, at the same time, word also spread that he had suffered grievous wounds.
Amphita, waiting for Kakeitos at the mansion of Neretos, the regional governor of Cocytus, rushed out to the balcony at the sound of the royal guard's horns.
The moment she saw the royal guard's standard, she burst into tears. The color of the standard was red, signifying the king's survival.
When Kakeitos returned unharmed, everyone rejoiced, saying it was the Mother Goddess's protection. However, everyone expressed questions about the woman who came with him.
The king, who had been unmarried until now, was so uninterested in women that rumors had circulated asking if perhaps he preferred men.
Yet the king had personally let her ride his horse, even dismounted her with his own two hands, and when she stepped on the ground, he had threatened, "No one dare raise their head," so everyone had only stared at the tops of her feet.
Amphita sat in the seat of honor in the empty council chamber, arms crossed, with a displeased expression. A full week had passed since Kakeitos returned. Yet except for the day of arrival, she had not caught even a glimpse of him.
At first, she could not bear to acknowledge that someone more important than herself had appeared to her brother, so she chose silence. She pretended not to notice that everyone's attention was focused on that woman.
But gradually, anger welled up. She could accept her brother behaving that way, but this arrogant woman had undoubtedly grown impudent beyond measure. How dare she not even show her face to the future Anassa!
Glaring fiercely, Amphita finally hopped down from the high chair. The loud stomping of her furious footsteps echoed, hitting the ceiling and walls.
The temple was under renovation. Beyond the sound of stonemasons hammering, a beautiful sight unfolded.
The Great Temple of Cocytus, which was said to become the most feminine and elegant sanctuary in Demeter.
Between the temple columns painted with blue dye, white and transparent hems of clothing brushed the floor as they moved.
As red hair glimpsed beneath the veil on her head rippled golden in the sunset light, Amphita, who had been lying in wait, appeared with a crooked expression and blocked her path.
"So you're the one? That unidentified priestess my brother brought back."
The protagonist of the rumors the inns had been whispering about all day long.
She had wondered why this person hid deep in the temple and even wore a veil. Before Amphita could ask, some loose-lipped innkeeper had whispered and told her.
"She was a woman devoted in a small temple in some province, but the king is said to be utterly smitten. He receives a mere priestess like a goddess and cherishes her dearly. But the woman is said to be audacious enough to use the altar as a bed and flirt with the king."
Amphita, entering the temple grounds, gathered everyone in the name of the future Anassa and ordered, "Tell my brother that a serious matter concerning my person has occurred, and he must return to the manor at once."
Kakeitos might fly into a fiery rage when he learned the truth later. Even so, Amphita wanted to speak with her alone.
There was no one who could punish the next Anassa. That included Kakeitos, the Lord Regent.
“So you are Amphita? You?”
She found herself thinking that such a voice truly existed in this world. It was a bright and gentle timbre, like the sun that dazzles the eyes the moment you open them in the morning.
Even without removing her veil, she could see her expression. Her eyes were tender and warm, as if they could melt even the seasonal chill of the earth.
“The one and only younger sister Kakeitos always bragged about, the one who will one day become the light and pillar of Demeter… Is that not right?”
“Did my brother say that?”
“He said so, and I thought so as well. Now that I see you, I was not wrong. Radiance flows from your very being. Just as it does from Kakeitos.”
Amphita’s face burned with heat.
“As expected of siblings. You truly resemble each other.”
The face of the innkeeper who had spouted nonsense about using the altar as a bed came to mind. She would have him seized and flogged at once. Such vulgar deceit was inconceivable.
Amphita stepped back and straightened her attire. She cleared her throat, lowered her eyelids slightly, and assumed a noble expression.
“I am Amphita, Daughter of Gaia, rightful heir to Demeter and the next Anassa. She who receives the love and esteem of Lord Regent Kakeitos. I ask that I hear your name and origins.”
Her youthful voice still spoke in an awkward and immature manner, yet a lofty pride was evident.
Daughter of Gaia…
She had heard that the Anassas, the rulers of Demeter, referred to themselves as Daughters of Gaia, but hearing it spoken before her now gave her a strange feeling.
The woman inside the veil elegantly inclined her body.
“I offer my love and reverence to the next Anassa. I am Pandora, who serves Mother Gaia. Lovely Amphita, did you know? That our meeting today was ordained by fate, as if carved into the constellations.”
“Our meeting? Not yours with Kakeitos?”
Pandora smiled meaningfully. Amphita was bewildered but asked no more. She did not know why, but there was a power in Pandora’s gaze that convinced one of everything.
Fate.
Besides, with that single word, she somehow felt proud and happy, as if she had triumphed over her brother.
Ψ
The seasons turned like a spindle, and a year passed in the blink of an eye.
Amphita did not return to Side. The high priests and archpriests in charge of the Anassa’s education sent clay tablets nearly every day, begging her to return to the palace, but she consistently ignored them.
“Are you really not going?”
“You go, Brother. I will stay with Lady Pandora. As long as I’m here, no one can utter a peep against her.”
Kakeitos stretched his lips in a smile. He was grateful to Amphita for saying that.
“Then will you look after her in my stead? I will leave with only you to trust. Understood?”
The moment Kakeitos mounted his horse and left, Amphita changed her clothes and prepared to depart the residence.
She placed honey cakes, dried figs, and freshly baked salted leavened bread into a basket tightly woven from young twigs and ran toward the white temple atop the hill.
The snow-white temple entrance was visible in the distance. Amphita glanced around and ducked into a side path between overgrown bushes. This narrow trail, known only to her and her close confidant, the innkeeper, led to the temple’s small rear gate.
She knocked twice on the oak door barred with a latch, and it was carefully opened from within.
After exchanging glances with her confidant, the innkeeper, Amphita walked quickly between the pillars draped with white cloth like tapestries.
Passing through the long corridor, a small garden appeared. The stone bridge over the stream-like waterway running through its center was pleasant to patter across lightly for amusement.
The scent of burning lilies and myrrh wafted from beyond the passage, brushing against her nose. The end of the long hallway was blocked by a plaster-covered gypsum panel; upon the solid wall was a mural of rose vines coiling like a whirlpool.
Amphita looked around, placed her hand on the mural, and pushed with all her strength. The wall slid backward as if rotating, revealing a spacious square room beyond.
“Welcome, Amphita.”
Pandora, dressed in a white linen dress, sat leaning against a low couch, braiding her hair long to one side.
“Hello, Rea!”
A black panther lying beside the couch lifted its head, yawned, and purred. Amphita crouched and stroked Rea’s back as the cat licked the back of her hand.
“Lady Pandora, how do you feel today?”
“Very well. Look, these are the flowers Kakeitos left before he departed. Children with such pretty fragrances and voices.”
“Voices? Can you truly hear such things?”
Instead of answering, she smiled, raising the corners of her lips. When Pandora reached out and caressed Amphita’s head, Amphita rested her forehead against Pandora’s knee and closed her eyes.
“It feels nice when you pat my head, Lady Pandora. I feel like I could just fall asleep like this.”
“I suppose siblings are alike after all. Kakeitos said something similar.”
“That ruins the mood a bit….”
“Why? You love him more than anyone in the world.”
“What do you mean? I like you the most, Lady Pandora. What about you? Is it me? Or my brother?”
Amphita shook the basket she had brought in front of Pandora’s eyes, feigning a threatening tone as she pressed for an answer.
“You must answer well. Otherwise, I will eat all of this myself.”
“That would be too cruel… Your niece or nephew will be greatly disappointed.”
Amphita flinched and looked at Pandora’s round belly. Her expression quickly softened. She approached Pandora’s side and rubbed the full, moon-curved belly as she offered an apology.
“Little one, Auntie is sorry. What I just said was only a joke. This is all yours. Auntie won’t even touch it. I promise.”
Pandora covered her mouth and laughed. If only Kakeitos could see this.
“But the baby in your belly—will it be a girl or a boy?”
“Shall I tell you?”
“You know, Lady Pandora?”
“Of course.”
Amphita stared intently at Pandora’s belly with an excited face. After a moment’s thought, she shook her head fiercely.
“No, don’t tell me! On the day the baby is born, I will prepare linen cloth thoroughly dried in the sun and wait without moving from the midwife’s side. Ah, I will cleanse my whole body beforehand with hyssop and salt, so do not worry. And when the baby emerges, I will be the first to meet its eyes. This child has heard my voice more than my brother’s, hasn’t it? Surely it will recognize its aunt. Because it will be a wise and intelligent child. When the midwife draws the baby out and cuts the umbilical cord, I will receive it in both arms, call its name aloud once, and place it directly into your embrace, Lady Pandora.”
Pandora closed her eyes as if imagining the very moment Amphita described, then spoke as if truly pleased.
“I am certain it shall be so. In my eyes, that scene is already beginning to appear, as if Ananke herself has passed through.”
Ψ
The rain had not stopped for weeks.
Thunderclouds clashed, lightning flashing across the sky, and thunder roared all around like a giant stomping his feet.
“It feels as if the day has vanished.”
Amphita rested her elbows on the white window ledge, looked up at the sky, and sighed.
“I can’t even remember the last time I saw the sun. Could the sun god’s chariot have broken?”
“Then the gods’ blacksmith would have fixed it by now, with time to spare.”
“What if even the blacksmith’s tools have all broken?”
“The blacksmith has no need for tools. His two hands and sacred fire accomplish everything.”
“Sacred fire?”
“The blacksmith possesses a sacred flame called Hestia. That beautiful flame holds the power to melt all things and also to give birth to all things.”
Amphita propped her chin on her hand, fascinated. The stories Pandora told were always new. A torrent of multifaceted knowledge and wit that even the high priest of Side did not know poured forth from her.
“I once heard from the high priest that humans originally did not know how to make fire, until a certain wise god stole fire and brought it to them in secret. After that, humans no longer trembled in the cold, but the god who gave them fire was punished for eons because of it.”
“That story is slightly mistaken.”
“What? Truly?”
“That god was not punished. The fire he gave to humans was a fire only humans could use. Even if placed in the hands of gods, it was a fire that could only be used for humankind.”
Amphita listened blankly, then squinted her eyes drowsily. Pandora’s words were sometimes like riddles, difficult to understand.
A fire only humans could use, and could only be used for humans?
“Solving riddles is more than enough when I do it with the high priest. Must you do this too, Lady Pandora?”
“This is still too difficult for Amphita to understand. I will tell you when you are older.”
“When will that be?”
“Hmm, when you are all grown up, perhaps around the time you have a child of your own, like me?”
Amphita made a horrified expression.
“I don’t want to have a baby. It hurts to conceive one and it hurts to give birth. Why would I do such a thing?”
“Then what of the next Anassa? Who will succeed Amphita?”
“Right here.”
Amphita wrapped her arms around Pandora’s belly. She pressed her cheek against the full-term belly that was even larger than her own face and giggled.
“This child will succeed me.”
“Oh? And what if it is a boy?”
“Then you need only have another one.”
“Didn’t you say it hurts to conceive and to give birth?”
“You and Brother are going to keep having children anyway, aren’t you? Don’t children hang from a loving couple like clusters of grapes?”
“How selfish, Amphita.”
“I want lots of nieces and nephews. If they are children who resemble you and Brother, even a hundred would be wonderful.”
Pandora smiled with her eyes curved. Amphita rested her cheek against Pandora’s knee, where her red hair fluttered like threads, and closed her eyes.
“Please stay by my side forever, Lady Pandora.”
At her words, Pandora faltered, then gazed intently at Amphita, whose face showed happiness as if asleep.
Humans truly loved the word “forever.”
Mnemosyne had said something similar as well. That lonely child would still be waiting for her with her daughter even now. But she could no longer go there. Nyx might harm them.
Poor children. Gods cannot promise eternity.
Because they know what eternity is. Because they know, they cannot speak of it. At the end of that abyss lies nothing but madness.
She stared at the twisted gold bracelet on her left wrist with a sad expression.
“Forever… Gaia, stay by my side forever.”
Come to think of it, perhaps she was the only one who loathed eternity. Even the Keton dreamed of forever when they fell in love.
Neither Keton nor human, she wished to become a being that was not eternal even while living forever, and she had still not found the answer.
Ananke, what would you have said? Would you have been exasperated and angry at my actions now? I miss you, my beautiful friend….
Ψ
I, Gaia, hereby erect the altar of Chaos, my mother and father, the Creator, in this place.
I was born from the contest of two Creators and grew upon the discarded byproducts of their struggle,
I witnessed the world without knowing what I was. Yet my ego awakened, sprouting forth at his call.
He gave me a name, gave me a duty, and gave me siblings.
He revealed your existence to be Chaos. And taking me in, he declared me your daughter.
The first children he wrought were conceived in the womb of Erebus; thus I received his command and aided their birth.
I am the first Keton, Gaia.
At the contents of the passage Kalian had recited, everyone wore dazed expressions. Tethys touched her lips and asked.
“Then is the old man holding a scythe in this mural Chaos?”
“Perhaps.”
Epas, listening to the conversation between the two princesses, was beside himself with astonishment. It felt as if all the premises of the research he had devoted his life to were being overturned.
Cronus as Chaos….
Yet it soon brought another thrill. Like the first time he had peeled back the mystery of the supernatural. Like the time he had witnessed the miracles of the almighty gods before his eyes.
“If this young man’s words are not false, this is truly a remarkable discovery. Should we not immediately summon the finest stonemason of Triton and have it carved into history upon the marble pediment of the Library of Alexandria?”
“Calm yourself, Lord Epas. The Mother must have had a reason for leaving this in the language of the Keton rather than the tongue of humans. Can we truly reveal it so publicly?”
As Tethys urged caution, Asteril agreed.
“This circular altar was not built by humans. It seems to be a place where the Keton worshipped Chaos.”
She organized what she had been mulling over and spoke.
“Chaos was the god of gods. He created the Keton, and to them he must have been the one and only father god. The various legacies Gaia left in the ancient divine domains were likely… left for the Keton, her kin. Understanding it this way makes the context fit.”
The divine domains of Cocytus and Nysa as well had the ancient letter Upsilon (Υ) carved upon the boulders and foundation stones blocking their entrances as the key.
Only the Cup of Oblivion was certain; Hestia remained a question mark.
Hestia, the sacred flame said to have been made by Gaia burning her own flesh. If it was a fire made for humans, why had she entrusted Hestia to Aris as well? Could the Keton need Hestia too?
Tethys murmured with a complicated expression.
“In any case, it is Delphi.”
Mount Parnassus, the land where Gaia was born, the place where the oracle descends, the site where the final legacy slumbers.
“Yes. We must verify what else Gaia left there, beyond this mural.”