Family Matters

Thank you again for yesterday. I couldn’t sleep much, so I decided to go for a walk and watch the sunrise. See you later.

Richard read the note on his nightstand. There was a little heart at the end. I wish I could’ve seen her to breakfast like the others, but this was sweet at least.

So he went through his usual routine by himself: shower, picking out clothes for the day, and heading across the plaza to breakfast. It was his second date with Hazel, although you could argue it into being his fourth with her given her appearances with Luna and his Hel. He wasn’t sure what she’d have planned this time, or whether she planned to come alone.

But whatever lay ahead, he arrived at the dining hall. It was busy again, in a way that was reassuring after how quiet it’d been at breakfast the past few days. Aubrey was there writing in a journal he hadn’t seen before, sitting next to Luna as the Latina read over her shoulder. They couldn’t stand each other two weeks ago. To be fair, he wasn’t actually sure how much Luna liked his girlfriend, but they were working well together and Aubrey had always been the one that’d needed more convincing.

Most of the others were around them too. Stella was next to Luna, and Helena and Hazel were on the bench at the other side of the table. Maeve was quietly sitting by herself at the next table over. Knowing Felicia and Ava, they were probably still sleeping in.

Richard walked over to the buffet table. It was an oatmeal bar like Hazel’s last date day, though a bit bigger than he remembered. It’d been stocked with brown sugar, bits of fruit, honey, syrup, marshmallows, and several kinds of nuts and nut butter. At this point the cup of marshmallows was empty, and it looked like most of the sugar and syrup had already been taken too. He scooped up a bowl of oatmeal and added a small amount of honey and pecan butter before joining his friends.

“Hey, how is everyone?”

Aubrey perked up, closing the journal and setting it next to her bowl of marshmallows. “Great! We were able to figure out your question about Genet and her producer like you asked for.”

He nodded appreciatively. “That was super fast. What’d you find?”

She paused, trying to remember how she’d heard Felicia phrase it with her and Ava at one point yesterday. “She’s an avatar of Aphrodite’s aspect of care towards a loved one.”

“Like in Gauntlets and Giants?” Dick asked.

“Exactly. Or close enough I think. “Her boss appears to be Zeus, or Jupiter, or some variation. The mentors seem to be other Olympians.”

“You’re trying to say that gods are real?”

“Or at least we need to act like they are.” Helena tried to help bridge the gap.

Hazel laid her hand on his forearm. “I know, it’s a lot to take in. I’m having a hard time believing it too. But the magic that’s affected all of us has to have come from somewhere.” She gestured up with her free hand at Stella on the other side of the table and her highlights. “At the very least we should keep an open mind.”

“I… fine. The audience member that wanted us to look into this seemed to think that we had something to fear from them. If that’s true, is there anything we can do about it?“

“Probably not,” Aubrey admitted. “Our best hope if something happened would be Genet maintaining order. If that failed our only chance would be emotionally manipulating whichever of her family members was causing problems. I’ve been preparing some lessons to help people know what to look for, and hopefully approach their mentors on a more level playing field. I know you don’t have a mentor, but you can join us if you’d like.”

“Sounds great.” He glanced around. “Should we invite Felicia or Ava?”

“We already did, they said they’d be reading separately." Luna said, pulling her phone out of her skirt pocket. “Ava never actually replied, but Felicia said she’d be studying with her after dinner but wanted to stay in bed for now. She also wanted me to call you a…” She looked down at her phone again and tried to suppress a snicker. ”She wanted me to call you a hircine jackass.”

He heard Hel mutter something, and Aubrey looked confused and offended for him. “You smell fine, babe.”

He just rolled his eyes and tried to assure everyone it was fine. “I’ll talk to her later.”

Stella looked about as confused as Aubrey, but didn’t comment on it after seeing Luna and the bodyguard take it in stride.

“Good luck with her.” Aubrey tried to offer. “Thankfully everyone here can get along. Once we’re done eating we can head over. I might go early to set up.”

True to her word, Aubrey finished her marshmallows and dusting of oats first and waved goodbye to him as she left with her journal. Luna and Stella left together, Maeve following close behind them.

Which left him sitting at the bench with Hazel and his stepsister.

“Can you go ahead of us? There’s something I wanted to discuss with him.” Hel said. Hazel silently nodded, taking care of her dishes before leaving the two of them alone.

“What’s up?”

“Damn it.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I’m trying, I really am. I want to support your decisions. But you- god. Why her?”

“You’re talking about Felicia?”

“Yes, I’m talking about Felicia. She asked to meet with me later today to patch things up. I want to give her my blessing since you like her, but I don’t know how I can. Sure, she’s smart. She’s probably the smartest person here. But she treats you terribly. If she was a sweetheart like Stella and Aubrey are in their own ways, I’d understand. But she felt the need to insult you at a meal she didn’t even show up to.”

“That was part of a running joke.” Dick tried to defend her.

“Jokes are funny.” Hel shot back, then sighed. “Richard, I want to be on your side. You know that. Tell me what to look for when I have to see her today. Why did you say you love her?”

He’d already tried saying it once in front of Felicia herself and struggled. Thankfully he’d had more time to think about it since. “Yes, she’s loud. Often her emotions get lost in translation and it comes out sounding like anger. But she’s incredibly passionate and I love how she can challenge me to be better. She never gives up, and is always willing to say what’s on her mind. Even when she’s saying the exact opposite of what she means, she’s still honest with me. And yes, I recognize that sounds contradictory.” He added the last part as he watched her raise an eyebrow.

“So you’re saying one of the most important things is her honesty?”

Richard nodded.

“I haven’t seen that.” Helena said. “But for you, I’ll try looking again. Are you ready to rejoin the others?”

Richard nodded, reaching for her leash that’d been sitting on the table for most of the meal. She quickly pulled it away, looking at him in annoyance. He reached for it again, and she stuffed it down her blouse.

“Hel, what are you doing?”

“What are you doing?”

“Helping you get to the library. I know you hate the crawling and there’s no one else to take you, so why don’t you just let me do it?”

“It’s too… ugh. It’s too intimate for you to do.”

He put his hand on his forehead as he stared at her. “I know Hazel usually does it for you. But I’ve seen Aubrey do it at least three times this week, and Stella told me she’s done it before. Are you trying to tell me that all of those times felt intimate?”

“No, but stop being so obstinate and just use your words to let me up. This doesn’t need to be so hard.”

“Fine. Then just walk with me. Happy?” He stood up and took two steps towards the door.

“Yes,” she said as she joined him.

The Turners walked quietly together to the library, each still believing themselves to be right. As they arrived together they found Aubrey standing in front of a chalkboard, preparing for her lesson. Two rows of seats had been packed tightly, and their friends were waiting for them.

“I’m glad you’re finally here. Hazel saved you two seats in the back. While you’re sitting down, I’ll try to start.” She turned to address the rest of the room. “I plan on starting with explaining how Genet and Aphrodite first came to be, then continuing to Zeus since I suspect him to be her boss, Jay. After that I will try to give a basic summary of each of their family members. Are there any questions before I begin?”

Seeing none, she started the speech she’d planned.

“Once, there was nothing but swirling chaos. The first life was a woman named Gaia who was the earth herself, every hill and valley her skin. She desired not to be alone, and so she created a man named Uranus. He was the sky, born to be her equal. She took him as her husband and they had many children together. First the-”

“This is her son that she married?” Helena asked.

“Technically, yes.” Aubrey waited for a follow-up question, but none came. “As I was saying, they had many children together. As they were born Uranus was disgusted by them, and put Gaia and her children in agony by stuffing them underground inside her. She came to regret Uranus, and when her next few children came she intentionally hid them until they were ready to turn against their father, and so Cronus and his siblings fought back against Uranus for her. His vitality fell into the ocean and was lost for some time.

"Uranus was a shell of himself after his defeat, but with his final breath cursed Cronus that someday his own children would turn against him. After Cronus took his sister Rhea as his wife-”

“So we’ve moved on from mother and son to brother and sister?” Helena interrupted again.

“Yes. May I continue? Even my freshmen are usually able to raise their hand.” Aubrey glowered.

“Of course, my apologies.”

“So, Cronus and Rhea became king and queen of the world as Gaia let them take over, eager for peace. But Cronus was driven to paranoia by his father’s final words and once again turned to cruelty towards his children. Rhea watched as one by one she bore five children, and Cronus swallowed them whole in an attempt to stop fate. She approached her mother for help, and her mother helped her come up with a plan. As her sixth child was born she replaced him with a stone and hid the newborn Zeus with a woman Gaia trusted named Amalthea. She was a satyr, which is to say a goat woman. The satyr raised him until he was an adult ready to fight his father. Rhea tricked Cronus into vomiting and in doing so releasing Zeus’s siblings, and the young gods turned against Cronus in vengeance for what he’d done to prevent the very act.

They won, and Rhea retreated to the quiet like Gaia did before her. So Zeus took his sister Hera as his wife and- yes, thank you for raising your hand this time.”

“How much of these stories involve ****?” Hel asked.

As the teacher was preparing to answer the delicate question, Genet puffed in with a cloud of almonds and vanilla. “Pretty much all the good relationships in the old stories were at least a little bit incesty,” the host “helpfully” chimed in.

“That’s debatable, and about as many bad relationships were like that too.” Aubrey countered. “As I was about to say with Zeus and Hera. Nobody could say they had a happy marriage.”

Genet winced. “You’re definitely not wrong about that. Can I take over the next part?”

“No.” Aubrey rejected her plainly. “If you’d like, you may stand at the edge of the room or see if you can fit another chair in here.”

“But I was there for some of the parts coming up!”

“And if I need a primary source, I’ll ask for your help.”

“I am still this season’s Host, I will be helping. You’ll appreciate it.”

“I convinced the principal at Capulet High to let me tell these stories to high-schoolers. Teaching is what I do. Now sit down, and I promise that I will tell you if I need your help.”

The host looked conflicted. The mist that’d been wafting off of her dissipated as she opened her mouth. She was about to say something when her cell phone suddenly started ringing. Genet frowned as she pulled it out of a bag no one had seen her bring in. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to take this. Jane, what do you need now?” Everyone heard her say before she hustled out of the room and the library’s silence enchantments muted the rest of the conversation.

Aubrey started to pick up where she’d left off. “Right. I recommend to everyone that you keep your phones on vibrate for the rest of the lecture, but I trust that if you choose to use it to send a text it's important.

"Back to the Greeks: Zeus and Hera became the new king and queen, creating their own complicated family tree that we will slowly explore the most important parts of…”