Aphrodite's Choice

Chapter 43 – The Husband’s Return

Aphrodite almost felt sorry for Ares’ attendants. Imagine, these spirits who were born for a single purpose, to sow madness into the hearts of men and wreak havoc in the battlefield, were now hapless parties to their master’s clumsy attempt to seduce the goddess of love. But any tears she would shed for them would be wasted: for Ares, everything and everyone’s worth was measured only by how it served his purpose.

Oblivious to her thoughts, the god of war asked, “Aren’t you touched?”

“Does it matter?” she responded as she followed Ares into his bed.

But secretly, there was something he said that touched Aphrodite, though she did her best not to show it. On the way to this lair, Ares kept rambling about how there was nothing that he wanted more in life than to bed her. He also kept promising that he had prepared a surprise for their first night together. The goddess of love was as good as anyone in smelling out idle flattery, but that last one felt like it was sincere and it moved her.

Despite that, Aphrodite was still thinking of another man, another god as she clambered up the god of war’s bed. Others, like the one in front of him, would move heaven and earth just to spend one night with her. But the one that mattered? She couldn’t even see a shadow or hear a whisper about him. This hardened her resolve as she thought that Hephaestus did not care whether the rumors about her and Ares were true.

“Fine, let’s do it.”

“Great!” said Ares as he greedily tore her clothes off. Even in the dark, Aphrodite could still his crimson eyes, as if his overpowering lust made them like the sun, shining with their own light. But her mind was on another pair of eyes, a darker pair.

The god war must have read her mind for he grabbed her hair and pulled upward, forcing Aphrodite to look into his eyes.

“Look at me,” he said, voice already raspy with desire.

She didn’t want to, but then she thought that it was much better than having to listen to his voice. As Ares pushed her into the bed roughly, Aphrodite noted how bizarre it was that the god of war did not have the manliest of voices among all the gods in Olympus.

Just as he grabbed her knees and was about to spread her legs open, there was a sudden roar enveloping them. It was so loud they could not hear each other or even themselves. Aphrodite stiffened while Ares leapt to his feet with cat-like reflexes and then crouched in a defensive stance.

Even before their minds had finished processing what they were hearing, bars appeared out of thin area, surrounding them and the bed. No, Aphrodite corrected herself. What trapped them seemed more like the mesh of a fishing net, only thicker and more solid.

“What is this?” roared the god of war as he grasped the net-like object and tried to rip it off with little success. He could not even close the hand holding the mysterious material into a fist as it exhibited surprising solidity. Ares then tried punching it with the other hand, with more or less the same results.

At the same time, a realization flashed into Aphrodite’s mind, making her grab her chest in equal parts of surprise and delight. I know who did this, she thought. Only one entity could work metal in such a way to make it as flexible and fine as a thread, yet stronger than even some gods. The realization made her flush with joy. For Hephaestus to go fashion a trap by creating a bed where it was secluded enough for Ares to consider using in this tryst, yet not so hidden as to miss his eyes, and then place this net here meant only one thing.

“Hah,” giggled Aphrodite as Ares looked at her as if she lost her mind. But both heads whirled into the same direction as they heard the noisy footsteps on the leaf-strewn ground of the forest. By twos and threes, the residents of Olympus came through the thick foliage and at their head was one god.

Hephaestus.

The murderous glare of Hera, the contempt from Apollo, the astonishment of Artemis, and the stares of all the other gods and goddesses as well as their disapproving tones: for Aphrodite, they might as well have not existed for she only had eyes for her husband. She was reveling in the fact that he had heard the rumors, and more importantly, he was not callous towards them. What else would be the conclusion of this elaborate trap he set up? He even involved the other deities as witnesses.