Decision + The Mightier Debt
I have decided that re-uploading /The Betrayer/ is unnecessary at this time but have added the Intertwine chapters spanning "The Debt" to "The Quill is Mightier..." to their rightful positions.
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“Nevermind!” Hope interrupted whatever else Aphrodite might have to say. “I’m leaving this place. I’m not afraid of a mere mortal. And I’m big enough to face that warrior-witch now! I’ll do it myself!”
The goddess slapped a hand over her own mouth to stifle a guffaw. “You’re big, huh? …Ha!” she burst out anyway. “You have the same little-dog attitude your mother does! Oh, you two are too-”
Hope’s hunger hit her in a sudden, all-encompassing pang, and she threw herself at Aphrodite just as Gabrielle had the night she gave Hope up. “What’s she like, Aphrodite? Don’t just tell me anymore! Show me!”
And in another echo of that night, the goddess sighed and put a hand over searching, imploring eyes. “Fine.”
A slideshow of some of Aphrodite’s favorite iterations of Gabrielle revealed themselves to Hope. The recklessly brave young girl tricking a cyclops and bossing around Titans; the dork whacking herself in the head with a quarterstaff in Amazonia, then playing a pan flute while doing a goofy jig alongside Xena and Argo, later conducting a chorus of stalagmites; the little hothead telling off the ex-Destroyer of Nations multiple times, whacking Joxer countless times, and uselessly trying to put the pinch on a barman; the reverent meeting Aphrodite for the first time; the sweetheart reassuring and soothing people wherever she went; all the characters contained in the same small person whom Aphrodite had come to adore flickered and danced in the darkness of the goddess’s cupped palm.
“So, anyway-”
“More!” Hope commanded, wrenching the goddess’s gauzy shawl in her fists and making Aphrodite nearly fall, desperate to be closer to Gabrielle.
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“H-hey, kiddo. Rough night?” Aphrodite was partway through asking when the bard whipped around at her touch, took her in for a tenth of a second, and then squeezed her tight, sobbing into her neck and inner shoulder. “Oh, sweet pea,” she breathed past the forming lump in her own throat. Her curly head rested against a silky one while one of her hands lifted to pet the girl’s honey-blond tresses for several minutes. “Woke up and realized you were stuck with us, huh? I hate when that happens!” A true grin spread across her lovely face when Gabrielle stopped crying so hard and began to chuckle ruefully.
“Yeah, realizing I might be stuck with y- Ares for the rest of my life is not a happy thought, you know?”
“No kidding! Imagine having to live with the big meanie for a thousand years like I have. That’ll really wreck your day!”
The pair laughed hollowly some more. Words abandoned them all too soon, however, as each struggled over whether to say more or nothing at all.
When Aphrodite could not stand the awkward silence any longer, she declared, “Well, let’s try to get back to sleep, yeah? Maybe we’ll wake up, and this’ll all just be a bad dream.”
“Yeah…” Gabrielle agreed. “…Yeah.” But she did not move from the spot or extricate herself from Aphrodite in the slightest.
Instinctually, the impotent goddess of love stroked and rocked her friend back and forth until Gabrielle was sound asleep. Then she carried the bard back to her bedroll, and, after a second’s uncertainty, moved both farther away from the fire. Speaking in an undertone to herself, she said, “I’m glad to know my protection cloak still works, but with me being like this, it’s best to not take any extra chances, right? …Yeah, this is smarter.” Aphrodite grinned. Take that, Dahak. My powers have been stripped, and I’m still stronger than you! Ha! Aaand, with my scroll, Gabby has the power to fight you if need be! So, there! Wh-
