At this moment, Mnemosyne was weakly, yet with a hint of seductive languor, gently tugging a lock of Zeus's hair with her slender jade-like fingers.
And that lock of hair belonged to Metis's deep purple.
The corners of her cinnabar-red lips lifted slightly. In her expression there was both barely concealed jealousy and unhidden pride.
A sound like a lazy, coquettish cat slid slowly from her rosy, full lips: "Zeus~ my love~"
Zeus felt his very divine bones go soft at that single call.
He couldn't help but lower his head, lightly kissing the goddess's brow where a sheen of fragrant sweat still lingered, and asked in a tone of utmost intimacy, "My love, my beloved goddess, what is it?"
The goddess slowly lifted her delicate head and gazed into Zeus's golden divine eyes. At no more than a palm's distance, her tears fell the moment she willed them.
With a hitching, sobbing cadence, she said, "My love, in your incomparably radiant golden hair, why… is there a lock of purple that isn't yours?"
After passion had ebbed, Zeus's IQ returned to its lofty heights, and he had already seen through the goddess's little gambit.
But looking at this pitiable goddess, at this exquisite sight of a beauty newly blossomed—pear blossoms wet with spring rain—what could he do?
He could only go along with her.
Zeus sighed softly and said in a voice steeped in tenderness, "My love, I know perhaps I am too greedy, but I truly cannot cast aside any one of you."
"I cannot bear the pain of losing you for even a moment. How greedy I am, wanting you forever at my side."
"And Metis, who loves me deeply—she is lenient and magnanimous. Rather than wrong me, she wronged herself, granting me the freedom to pursue the desire of my heart. We are of one mind and share the same profound love; she only asks that I be with her forever."
"So we entrusted a part of our divinity to each other. Our hair has thus been joined together for eternity; this is to be 'a wedded couple bound by hair.'"
The God-King who commands great thunder with his intellect would no longer let himself be led by the nose.
And now Zeus was not afraid to speak kind, sweet, and slightly embellished words!
Having fully united with Mnemosyne, he now held equal authority over memory and civilization, and possessed the authority of nine daughters besides. From this moment, Zeus was no longer a "transparent god" who could be freely spied upon before Mnemosyne.
Of course, Mnemosyne knew the truth as well; Metis was not transparent to her.
But how could this all-knowing goddess of memory ever put her beloved God-King on the spot?
That wasn't her aim.
She parted her red lips and, in a more plaintive tone, voiced her concern: "My love, and what about me? Could it be… that my love for you is inferior to that of the wise goddess?"
Zeus hurriedly denied it: "Oh~ my love, how could that be? Your love for me, and my love for you, are just the same as with Metis—equal and inexhaustible!"
Hearing this, the omniscient goddess felt immediately content. The rosy corners of her lips tilted in a coquettish smile, and she was about to say, "Then—"
When Zeus took the initiative, speaking in a righteous tone: "My love, even if you hadn't brought it up, I would have! I too want to be with you for eternity!"
As he spoke, he plucked a golden strand from his own head.
And, with utmost care, he ensured that the number and length of this strand were exactly the same as the one he had given Metis before—precisely the same!
Gently, he took a jet-black strand from Mnemosyne and joined them in the same fashion.
The cultivated goddess of civilization was very satisfied with Zeus's self-awareness.
She arched her snow-white neck high and, with great ardor, offered her beloved the sweetest nectar as a reward.
Zeus, however, groaned inwardly: How many colors would his hair end up being dyed in the future?
Thankfully Hera and Themis, like him, were blonde—and many goddesses shared hair colors. Otherwise, even a rainbow might be too few!
He quietly resolved that from now on, only those he acknowledged as "wives" would enjoy this honor of "binding hair." Those who were merely lovers would not receive this treatment again!
The two gods, glued together, nuzzled and lingered for quite a while before preparing to part.
They had to part.
Mnemosyne had clearly sensed that the wise goddess, Metis, truly was about to explode!
Drag it out any longer and, no matter how good her temper, she would absolutely not endure it!
Enough was enough; they couldn't push Metis entirely into a hostile camp.
After all, Zeus loved her deeply and was filled with guilt toward her.
And Mnemosyne, too, was thoroughly satisfied.
She was utterly exhausted, with not a shred of strength left in her divine body.
To surpass Metis in momentum, she had insisted on outdoing her in every respect.
And throughout the entire process, she kept splitting her attention.
It must be said: in pure strength, a primordial Titan far outstrips Metis.
The thick fog shrouding Olympus gradually dissipated.
The crown-braided maiden goddesses who had been singing and dancing swarmed forward, embracing their Father and Mother with boundless affection.
Zeus told them that at the next Grand Convocation of the Gods, he would formally bestow upon them the honors uniquely their own.
The cheering children clustered around him, singing in delight. This family of eleven made for a very harmonious scene.
Zeus himself felt rather strange.
He had children now—but so many all at once.
And they were fully-grown young ladies the moment they were born.
He hadn't experienced the troubles of raising and tending to children at all!
Still, they were his own children; the more he looked, the fonder he felt!
He led his nine newborn daughters back to the God-King's Temple and built for each of them a splendid palace atop the fairest peaks.
In ordinary times, the children still followed their mother, Mnemosyne.
Though they were powerful law-goddesses born knowing, Zeus was still not quite at ease; Mnemosyne must personally care for and teach them.
The birth of a law-god does not require the long growth of mortals; being born knowing is normal. Yet their temperaments will closely mirror their source laws.
Without proper guidance, they will easily become too willful, ruled entirely by their own nature—and that is no good.
A god of lies who knows only to lie, a god of death who brings only death, or a god of sleep who slumbers forever—if wholly ruled by nature, that is not, in the true sense, a holy and limpid divinity possessed of "self."
The sublimity of divinity should be to arise from nature, control nature, and transcend nature, not the reverse—being controlled by nature and letting primal impulse rule the self completely.
The primal laws are the rules and forces that compose the universe, but they should not be the sole code by which a god acts and lives.
Though gods are born of nature, their ultimate godhood ought to transcend inborn nature—and this still requires a parents' careful instruction.
In less than a month, a storm like none before swept the divine realm.
The world was changing far too quickly—so quickly that even the gods struggled to make sense of it.
How was it that in so short a time, the great God-King suddenly had two astonishing lovers at his side, and a full ten newborns of noble blood!
Among the Twelve Sacred Laws, there are edicts that encourage gods to extend their bloodlines and create new laws; that the God-King should lead by example is only proper—but isn't this too fast!
The goddess of wisdom was the God-King's lawful wife to begin with; their union made sense. The goddess of civilization and memory had shown signs long ago, and the gods had prepared themselves mentally.
Even for the Lady of Night, the gods had some forewarning.
But this ocean goddess named Dione—where had she sprung from?
Zeus had only just settled Mnemosyne and the children when he swept Mount Olympus with his divine sense and felt the oppressive atmosphere there to the utmost—and immediately his head ached.
Once the fun is over, the hard part arrives.
Too many beloved goddesses—no way to placate them all!
But it was truly fun while it lasted!
On the holy peak where Hera dwelt, a fine drizzling rain fell without end. No need to think to know that the proud goddess must be heartbroken to the extreme.
In Hestia's palace, the hearth that should burn eternally now offered not a trace of warmth.
As for Demeter—her fertile peak was now a withered yellow. Even the cracks between the temple's stone steps could no longer sustain a single blade of grass.
Once, Demeter's mountain had been the most beautiful and luxuriant—birds singing, flowers fragrant, grasses lush.
Now, if you didn't know better, you'd think it the residence of a goddess of ruin and decay.
And then there was Metis.
Zeus stroked a black lock at his brow, feeling rare guilt.
He had just sworn oaths and bound their hair together; then one trip outside, and on meeting again there was yet another bound lock.
This… easy to do, hard to explain.
No—impossible to explain!
Of course, Zeus could use his newly won authority over memory to know clearly every thought of the goddesses at this very moment.
But he had no interest in that.
Such behavior would rob everything of its true meaning—and of any charm.
It would be the greatest disrespect to the goddesses who loved him so deeply.
If he were truly to do that, he might as well directly create some goddesses for play—that would be simpler and less troublesome.
Mnemosyne hadn't spied on everything either. Through long years of loneliness and boredom, the All-Knowing Goddess had already learned restraint.
(End of Chapter)
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