There were more important things to be concerned with.
Her father and uncle were still at odds with each other, and as usual, the younger gods were caught in the crossfire. She had a battle to plan, strategies to polish and heroes to guide. Her owls needed tending to, lest they staged a coup of their own. She was only halfway through her studies, with very little time in the day to progress them. And to top everything off, a little mortal girl was claiming to be more prolific in the art of weaving than the goddess herself.
So many things to do, to take care of, and therefore no reason to dawdle.
Yet here she was, at her aunt's pillar, with a baby in her basket.
She glanced at the infant squirming among the sheets, in place of where her father's thunderbolts were supposed to be. The baby looked up at her, as if preparing to once again wail her ears off. Athena acted quickly, swinging the basket in the motion of a rocking cradle. The baby's lips ceased their trembling, soothed by the swaying of the wickerwork. She breathed a sigh of relief.
"Let me get this straight," her aunt said as she sat in the most comfortable klismos Athena had ever seen. "Hephaestus slept with Gaia, thinking she was you, and then she left their son in your care?"
"My son," Athena hissed the words through clenched teeth. She could feel rage consuming her body, and she wanted desperately to throw something in order to shake off the emotion. She wasn't her brother Ares. She was the calm, collected one. "Gaia made the fact perfectly clear when she left this on my doorstep."
Hestia blinked, trying to make sense of the situation. The goddess of wisdom couldn't really blame her aunt. The claim made no sense, as it was Gaia who'd borne the child.
The hearth goddess left her seat and moved closer. When she was an arm's length away, Athena held the basket aloft so her aunt could peek into it. She watched as the the older goddess' brows crumpled, observing what she'd first noticed of the infant.
Despite the evident parentage, the baby's shell resembled neither Gaia nor Hephaestus. There was neither crippled limb nor mangled face upon the tiny body. The creation goddess' plump attributes were absent as well. Instead, well-rounded, snake-like limbs clutched at the linen blanket, as quick and strong as the war goddess'. Stormy gray eyes, filled with curiosity, wonder and just a touch of fear, were set in an adorable little head.
It was obvious who the little one resembled.
"Confounding indeed," Hestia said as she took the baby from its makeshift carrier. The older goddess, used to carrying the squirmy little things around, placed the babe upon her warm breast. It calmed immediately. "I don't understand how this could happen."
"Neither do I, and I'm the goddess of wisdom." Athena looked on with awe as her aunt bounced the child, eliciting a carefree gurgle from it. Hestia cooed, running a soothing finger over its cheek, and its tiny face immediately turned towards the digit. Both immortals looked perfectly content to entertain each other, the bond as baffling to Athena as the nature of the baby's features. "It's not supposed to look like me."
Hestia plucked a daffodil from the kylix on her table. She brushed its delicate petals over the baby's mouth, which opened instinctively upon contact. It began suckling at the half-open bud, drawing nectar from the flower for sustenance. "But he does, so clearly it wasn't Gaia occupying Hephaestus' mind while they were doing the deed."
This time it was heat that engulfed Athena's entire body. Her hand dropped, lowering the basket to her side. How Hephaestus could still harness desire for her, especially after Zeus declared her untouchable to all the other gods, she didn't know. She thought all that misplaced infatuation would've vanished in the wake of his union to Aphrodite, but clearly this wasn't the case. The poor smith really was trapped in an unhappy marriage. "So you're saying this was my fault? That I had a hand in this?"
"Of course not. The very idea is absurd!" Hestia's outburst spooked the babe, but she was quick to nuzzle her nose into its hair. "All I'm saying is that Hephaestus, sweet child that he is, has been acting like an ass recently."
So that's how you soothe it, Athena thought, not sure why she was taking such pains to note every one of her aunt's techniques. "It must have something to do with Aphrodite's affair."
"Ares?"
"Who else?" Athena replied. "You know how my half-sister is with her lovers. It's like a sport to her now, but unfortunately for her, Hephaestus rarely takes the bait. This time though, they went too far."
"What happened?" Hestia asked, returning to her klismos with the child in her arms. She nursed it with another daffodil after the first was wrung dry. The baby suckled contentedly as the two older goddesses continued their conversation. "Was it worse than when he caught the two in their bedchamber?"
"Much worse." The war goddess plopped down on the other side of the table and reached for a bowl of olives. She popped one into her mouth and chewed contemplatively. It wasn't her usual habit to meddle in the trifle gossip of the immortals, but this latest rift between her half-sister and the smith was too great an issue to ignore. "Word has it that Aphrodite hasn't returned to their pillar for a sennight now. She might as well have declared a separation between herself and her husband."
Hestia shook her head and sighed at the news. "And so Hephaestus sought out another's company?"
"Not after getting flat-out drunk," Athena said, crushing three new olives in her hand. She could feel her teeth grinding over each other again. She would've pounded on the table, but it would only upset all the food and drink there. "Dionysus confessed to giving him a full amphora, which he said was duly consumed after less than an hour."
The hearth goddess sighed again. She crumpled the second flower and left it on the table for later disposal. Athena watched as her aunt lifted the infant and gently patted its back. "Worry not. I'll have words with Dionysus when he next visits. He won't be as free about giving away his brew in the future."
"Thank you," Athena said gratefully, standing up from the table and bowing to her aunt. "About the baby..."
"Have you chosen a name for him?" Hestia asked, catching the war goddess completely off guard. She looked at her aunt askance, for it never once occurred to her that the thing would need a name. She swallowed the bile that wanted to spill from her throat, not sure if it was wise to refute her aunt's presumption.
"Forgive me for saying this, Aunt Hessy, but you must be out of your mind," Athena said. "Despite all the knowledge I possess, I have no idea how to care for that thing. I didn't even know it could be fed with nectar."
The baby whimpered again, and Hestia hurriedly returned it into the cradle of her arms. She shushed the infant until it gave out a tiny yawn of contentment. It stayed awake, however, as if aware that its fate was being decided upon by the two adult immortals in the room. "So you were hoping that I could adopt him?"
"I certainly hoped you would take care of it," Athena replied, adjusting the breastplate of her armor. She'd never been a child—one reason why she considered herself unfit in the rearing department—but she figured what she felt now was as close to what any guilty, helpless little girl would feel. There were certain disadvantages to being born fully grown.
Hestia looked at the child for a long time, as did Athena. A new emotion swept into the latter, but this time she couldn't name it. Part of her hoped that Hestia would take the babe, so she could return to her daily duties and activities. But another part of her seemed attached to the squirmy, little thing, a part quite fixated to the likeness of their eyes and temperament. At last though, the hearth goddess spoke.
"Unfortunately, I cannot rear such a precious child in safety," she said, "at least for the moment. Poseidon still carries a flame for me, and if he sees me taking care of this little one, his rage will know no end. He will think I have chosen another to be my husband, despite the impossibility. Unless you want me to feed him to the hearth, where he shall forever stay, there is nothing else I could do."
Her words brought more conflict to Athena. Her aunt was still willing to take the child in, but in a manner entirely different from what Athena expected. She'd hoped it could grow up like a normal god, and she could visit it from time to time. But being part of the hearth wasn't such a bad thing, was it? She'd been part of her father's mind for some time too, and it hadn't been that terrible. "The hearth fire will do it no harm, right?"
"No, it will not," Hestia confirmed as she swaddled the babe in its blanket. She approached the hearth, which seemed to leap to attention as it sensed its mistress. Athena's arms twitched as she watched her aunt hold the baby carefully over the lapping flames. "It will absorb this little god's essence. He'll be warm and safe within the fire, and kept a secret from the rest of Olympus, Gaia and Hephaestus aside. It will be as if he was never born."
An edge of the blanket dipped very close to the fire as the baby was lowered.
"Wait!"
Athena rushed to her aunt's side, and she held up the basket. For all her cleverness, she didn't know what in Olympus she was doing. All she knew was that this new emotion she felt consumed her. Something was pushing her to change her mind, despite the irrationality of it. All she knew was that feeding the infant to the fire seemed wrong. "I have an idea."
Hestia paused, the child still in her hands.
Athena felt anxious to see it back in her basket. "You may return the child to me. I think I have another solution."
They regarded each other, and Athena hoped her aunt wouldn't see through her lie. In truth, she had no clue whatsoever about what to do next. All she knew was that it seemed cruel for the thing to live out the rest of its existence as a glowing, orange entity.
"Very well," Hestia said. The hearth goddess returned the baby into the basket, and Athena breathed in relief. The weight of the basket and its contents brought an unexplained measure of comfort to her. She looked down at the infant, just to make sure that no harm had indeed come to it. The baby was still its fussy, squirmy self, and that felt right.
She wasted no time in saying goodbye to her aunt, who tied some stems of daffodils together, just in case the babe got hungry. Athena thanked her aunt and made her way back to her chariot after receiving the bouquet. The golden doors closed behind her, and she was left standing in Hestia's garden.
Alone. With a baby. And no idea of who and where to go to next.
But strangely, she felt no fear or irritation anymore. Perhaps it was the beauty of the pillar garden, filled with colorful wildflowers, that soothed her so. Or perhaps it was the intimately familiar gray eyes that stared up at her.
Athena climbed onto her chariot and set the basket near her feet.
And then, realizing the reason for the babe's weeping for the first time, she gingerly scooped—him—from the basket.
"Ericthonius," she said as she cradled him in one arm and took up her horses' reins with the other. "I think I shall call you Ericthonius."
Little Ericthonius gurgled at her, the sound bringing a small smile to Athena's usually serious lips.
"Yes, little one. Ericthonius." She started her chariot, at a more careful canter this time. "Indeed you will make a fine god and warrior. And who knows? Maybe someday, you'll become a great king. You have my brains and fierceness, after all."
♥
Author's Note
Finally! I thought I'd never be able to put up this part. So many things happened yesterday, and I didn't get around to finishing the second half of this on time. So I'm terribly sorry for the long wait, everyone. I hope a few hours without updates wasn't too much torture.
Anyway, I hope you all liked this part. There were honestly so many stories about Athena that it was difficult to choose. In the end, I decided to experiment with her 'motherly' side, or to see if she had one. I took a lot of liberties with this story, mainly the nature of Ericthonius' 'conception' and birth, as a result. I quite liked the end product though.
Please let me know in the comments if you feel the same. If not, you can go ahead and rant too, lol. See you for the next update! :)