Seraglio of the Gods - Segment 11

Chapter 51

My sobbing brought Vulcan back to the present, and he turned me around to face him. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

Just seeing the confusion on his face had me crying even harder. Our recent sexual activity with chocolate showed he was anything but bored with me. “I haven’t betrayed you, Vulcan, I know I haven’t.” By now I was almost hysterical with the fear of what was going to happen to me once Vulcan sent me back to the women’s quarters. “Why are you unhappy with me? What have I done to offend you?”

Vulcan’s confusion disappeared when he realized the reason for my terror. “Melody, I’m sorry. I should have explained sooner about the rings.” He reached underneath me and draped my body across his legs, cuddling me next to his chest. Before speaking again, he gently wiped the tears off my face and tucked my head against his shoulder.

“I insisted there be one safeguard a god can use to protect his woman before removing her chain. By placing a ring on her finger, the god is telling every other male she is permanently his and off limits. If she is touched, even if only as a prelude to ravishment, the god can punish the offending male in any way he wants.”

I snuffled into Vulcan’s neck, and then hiccupped with relief as my crying slowly stopped. “You’re not tired of me and giving me away then?”

Vulcan answered me by capturing my mouth with his, inserting his eager tongue through my parted lips. My arms went up around his neck, and time stand still as our tongues mated. I felt myself gently lowered to the bed, and I drew Vulcan’s body down to rest from shoulders to hips on top of me.

Only a cough from someone standing at the bedroom doorway stopped Vulcan from showing me how much he still desired me.

“You really should get a lock for that door.” I whispered to a frustrated and annoyed Vulcan.

* * *

Chapter 52

“But then, my child, that would take away my enjoyment of watching you two.” In shock, I looked over Vulcan’s shoulder at Hera. She was smiling at the sight of the two of us, naked, lying on the bed tangled together, and about to sexually indulge ourselves.

Vulcan remained stretched out on top of me and facing away from his mother. “Does she look mad?” he whispered. When I shook my head, he slowly peeled himself off me and sat on the edge of the bed. I scrambled to my knees and stayed behind him, trying to hide my nakedness from Hera. Vulcan didn’t seem bothered at letting his mother seeing him in that condition, even though his body clearly showed his heavy arousal.

His voice sounded bored when he asked, “Did you want something, or did you just come here for a visual reminder on how to keep your husband happy and out of another’s bed?”

Hera majestically walked into the bedroom and pulled up a chair beside the bed. She sat down, ignoring Vulcan’s rude comment. “I’m here to admit defeat. I now see you no longer will be going back to your wife.”

“My ex-wife, mother.”

“Right, ex. Anyway, since you insist on keeping this mortal woman permanently, she will have to do. Will you agree to it with her?” Hera waited for Vulcan to answer her cryptic question.

“If she agrees to it, I’m willing.” Vulcan moved aside to let Hera have a clear view of me. “She is worthy of the honor, but I’ll need promises from you and Jupiter you won’t interfere with what we have to do. Is that understood?”

Hera stood, preparing to leave. “I know I can speak for my husband after the crime he almost committed against your woman. We will await your decision.” With that, she left the bedroom, walked through the darkened forge, and disappeared out into the courtyard.

* * *

Chapter 53

”Vulcan, what was that all about?” I asked, confused about Hera’s comments and the honor she and her son were giving me.

Vulcan stood and silently paced around the room for a few minutes before returning to the bed. When he sat down beside me, the look on his face was one I’d never seen before. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was about to tell me the world had come to an end.

“The world has come to an end!” Vulcan said this very quietly, as if he were telling me there was no more coffee.

Shocked and not understanding, I managed to get out, “I beg your pardon? What did you just say?”

“Did anyone tell you of the problems on earth during Cupid’s kidnapping?” Vulcan didn’t wait for my answer. “Without Cupid’s arrows bringing loving people together, humanity fell into despair. War and pestilence took over until we managed to free him from the Titans. By then, though, it was too late.”

“What do you mean, too late? Too late for what?”

Vulcan gently brushed my hair, damp from our recent exertions, from my face. “Too late for humans to survive. Oh, there were pockets of survivors in remote areas of the world still procreating, but they weren’t enough to keep civilization going. The cities around the world emptied first and then the small towns, leaving only animals alive. Even the great apes, so close on the evolutionary ladder to humans, disappeared.”

I remembered something Sabrina had once told me. “That means we here will disappear, too, doesn’t it? All the gods and the women will simply fade away, right?”

Vulcan nodded. “Yes, it’s started already.”

* * *

Chapter 54

Tears filled my eyes at the thought of losing Vulcan forever. “How long before we go?”

Vulcan pulled me to my feet and wrapped his strong arms around me. “There is a chance for us, if you’re willing.”

I leaned back in his arms, eagerly searching his face. “Willing to do what?”

“Willing to be the mother of the next generation on earth.” Vulcan’s words surprised me into silence. “Jupiter has told me of a way the gods and women here can survive, at least in spirit. His plan means I’m the only one who can bring this about, and I need you to help me. Will you and not ask any questions, for now?”

He refused to say what he wanted me to do, but I trusted Vulcan and agreed without reservation. For the next few days, gods started arriving at Vulcan’s workplace, each carrying their personal chain of submission. The dozens of golden chains had been removed from the women, and some of these freed women accompanied their gods. It was my task to take the chain from the god, bring the length of gold to Vulcan’s huge forge, and throw it into the roaring fire. As each chain melted down into the growing puddle of liquid gold, those who brought it to us slowly disappeared into thin air.

Loki and his beautiful Sorrel, gone.

Brianna holding on tightly to the hand of her god Oghma, gone.

Ares arriving with Venus, his chain of submission recently placed around her hips and then removed, gone.

One after another, the gods and their current women came to us, bowed reverently to Vulcan and myself, and faded away. The last to arrive were Jupiter and his wife and loving adversary through so many centuries. Hera, unlike every other female, came into the forge holding the chain out to me. I recognized the lettering on this chain as being the original chain of submission made for Acteon Baptiste.

“Come outside with me, my child, and let Jupiter have some last words with our son alone.” Hera, still never letting go of that evil chain, walked with me out into the deserted courtyard. “Has Vulcan told you any of what will happen?” When I shook my head, she went on. “You’ve probably heard the story of how Prometheus created mankind out of clay back in the beginning of time. His attempts to better the lives of his creation brought him into direct conflict with my husband, and Jupiter severely punished him. With that civilization turned now into dust, the new race must come from a sturdier material, that of gold.” Hera looked down in disgust at the chain in her hands. “Even this must go into their creation, per Jupiter’s decree.”

“It’s time for you to be with Vulcan, so take this terrible item and send my husband out to me. Tell my son I love him and always have.” With that, Hera handed me the chain and gave me a gentle shove back toward the forge. I met Jupiter on his way out, and received one last bow before he joined Hera.

Once inside, I gave Vulcan the chain of submission and stood back, waiting to see what he would do with it.

* * *

Chapter 55

Vulcan was about to throw the chain into the large pool of melted gold, but hesitated. “No, I won’t add evil. This will melt separately and remain always hidden here away from our children.” He placed another smaller iron pot on the fire and threw the chain into it. “I have obeyed his wishes to the letter. All he ordered me to do was melt the chain down, not what I should do with it afterwards.”

We stood there silently watching the melting links coat the bottom of the pot with a thin skin of molten gold. When the last link finally melted, Vulcan poured the hot liquid out into a mold he’d taken down from a nearby shelf. He set the mold back on the shelf to let the gold harden, keeping the final item hidden inside. Vulcan looked at me, a mixture of eagerness and hope in his beautiful green eyes. “It’s time, Melody. Hold on to my hand tightly as if your life depended on it, for it does.”

With no more warning, I found myself above earth, floating in the clouds with Vulcan. He was scattering microscopic flecks of the gold throughout the clouds as we swiftly circled the blue planet below us. I have no idea how long this took, but once we had gone around the earth and the container that held the gold was empty, Vulcan brought me down to stand on a high hill overlooking what was only recently an empty city.

When we walked down and entered the outskirts of that city, one I recognized as San Francisco, I watched as people started appearing. First I would see a tiny fleck of gold on a sidewalk or blade of grass, and then a fully grown man or woman would emerge from it. Their naked bodies were not white, black, or any other color of the previous human race. All had an ever-so-faint shimmer of gold about them. Each male had green eyes similar to my Vulcan, and the women’s eyes mimicked my own blue ones. The hair color of each sex also matched ours, black for men and blonde for the women.

Vulcan smiled at my confusion. “In time, the differences in them will emerge, but for now I used us as the templates for the new human race. What do you think of our first children?”

I continued to cling to his hand, not entirely sure of what had just happened. Vulcan went on, seeing I was still speechless, “There are no more ancient deities. Even I am now mortal like you. The chains contained the spirits of the gods and every woman they had mated with over the centuries. The goodness of Grace and the humor of Loki remain scattered throughout the humanity you see before you. There is also the selfishness that Ares had all his long life, but it’s tempered by the affection Oghma felt for his sweet Brianna. Each god and woman brings something to this new race of humans, even us.”

“What do we bring?” Finally able to speak, I turned to the god, now a human male, standing beside me. I felt his warm arms pulling me against his naked body and relaxed.

“Why, my wife, we bring equality between the sexes. I no longer am your master, simply your husband who loves you and has learned to listen and learn from you.”

Vulcan added, with a wicked grin, “I’ve also learned to duck!”

* * *

THIS SIMPLE TALE
IS COMPLETED IN THE LAST SEGMENT.

Seraglio of the Gods - Dénouement  (XGC) Thus ends this initial story of the ancient gods. #1319904 by J. A. Buxton