The Perils of Unrequited Love

CHAPTER XII: THE PATH TOWARDS MISERY

" amor et melle et felle est fecundissimus;

gustui dat dulce, amarum ad satietatem usque oggerit."

( Love exceedingly abounds both in honey and in gall: it yields sweetness even in a taste, and produces bitterness to sufficiency".)

——Plautus, Cistellaria 69-70

Time was worth more than gold. Nobody understood that principle better than Lady Rosabelle Godfrey, the fallen god of requited love, who had lived and died for 218 lives.

Now that Hedone was rescued, the danger was looming in the corner.

Sooner or later, she would definitely have to face the kidnapper, whom she still knew nothing about, not even his immortal identity.

If she had known Hedone was not only useless, but also irrefutably troublesome, she would never risk herself to save the Goddess of pleasure. Not in a million years!

She did not want Hermaphroditus to leave her side at this critical moment.

However, information was worth as much as time. Sun Tzu said Know the enemy and know yourself in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.

She did not know her enemy, but she knew herself.

The purpose of this trip was not only to reverse Priapus to his original state, but also to call for help from her mother and Eros.

Unwilling as she was, she only hoped that the rescue mission, which was neatly done, would buy her enough breathing time for Hermaphroditus to return before the baddie realized Hedone escaped his evil clutch.

Her thoughts went to Hermaphroditus' destination.

Mount Olympus. The home of the gods.

Although Olympus was practically in another dimension, it was anchored to one specific location on earth: the peak of the mountain Olympus in Greece.

There were only two ways one could enter the home of the god. One was to teleport from the top of the physical mountain to the portal. The other was to fly high enough to reach the gates in the air.

Like every rule ever written, there was an exception. Permanent residents of Olympus, or in other words the 12 Olympians and their retinues, can teleport directly into their mansions without having to go through the gates.

That useless goddess Hedone was counted as Eros' assistant, but Hermaphrodtitus, the black sheep among the gods, the monster of Olympus, was not even registered as part of Aphrodite's entourages.

He would have to do it the wingless minor god way, climbing to the top of Mount Olympus like a lowly human and teleporting to the front gate.

To journey to that place from London would take months back in ancient Greek time, even with Hermaphroditus' teleporting magic, as he could only teleport from his domain to another.

After Hermaphroditus agreed to go in Hedone's place, she pulled some strings to get Hermaphroditus on the last direct flight from London to Thessaloniki of the day.

Thank the gods that her family had businesses with the British airlines and thank her father, Lord Henry Godfrey's, hard work in the EU open borders agreement back in the 90s.

Now that she was sending Hermaphroditus off at the Heathrow airport terminal, she also thanked the advent of aeronautic study for reducing the travel time from months to three hours and ten minutes.

" Don't let Aphrodite see the mirror or else she will confisticate it and I won't be able to get the intel."

Hermaphroditus said with slight annoyance. " I know!"