The Goddess of the Homely Flame

DanMachi: The Dragon's Return

Hey, everyone! Thanks for the reviews. Please enjoy the next chapter.

Musical inspiration comes from Elder Scroll's "Far Horizons."

Chapter 17

The Goddess of the Homely Flame

…

"Again," Hestia commanded, striking a book on Haruhime's head. The blonde Renard winced in pain and folded her ears. She whimpered as her hands swiftly and instinctively moved to where Hestia had smacked her.

"Do you have to be so harsh? Haruhime groaned.

"We have a little less than four months before we get to Telskyura, and you need to learn to control a power that the gods have learned to control since the foundations of the world," Hestia frowned and placed her hands on her hips. The book the goddess held in her right hand was a compilation of the tales of heroes. "What do you have to lose next to use the power you have been given? Your hearing? Your speech? Your ability to walk? Your memories? Your life? I refuse to allow you, a daughter of my Familia, to succumb to any such fate! Now, get back into your position and try again!"

Tiona and Mikoto watched the pair from a small distance away, under a small tree. The girls had decided to break for lunch, and Tiona had shot down and skewered a boar with the ancient bow and spear of the Amazon queen, Evelda. Part of Tiona wanted to bury the bow with Tione, but the young Amazon considered her late sister would have wanted Tiona as prepared as possible.

"Do you want to talk?" Mikoto asked, seeing a distant look paint Tiona's face.

"I… No, thank you," the young Amazon blinked before she shook her head and smiled weakly at Mikoto. "Some things can't be solved with words. Not immediately, at any rate."

"I suppose not," Mikoto's eyes softened. "But, do remember none of us will turn you away if you ever feel like talking."

"I appreciate that," Tiona muttered, turning her eyes back to Haruhime.

Hestia hit the Renard again. The Amazon knew the goddess had no intention of being cruel to Haruhime, but Tiona felt anger boil inside her every time Hestia chastised the Renard. Tiona clenched her fists, wondering to herself why she felt hotly against Haruhime's training when the young Amazon had gone through trials so much worse. She and Tione went through the same hell in Telskyura: they were trained to kill before they could talk. Tiona remembered the way the blood of the monster she first fought smelled before she ripped its magic crystal from its body. It smelt rust and sewage, and she had to breathe through her mouth to keep from gagging. If she had gagged, she would have been killed by that monster.

She was asked to kill her own kin after killing the monster and did so with mixed feelings. Only when she knew goddess Kali would ask Tiona to kill her own twin did she finally draw the line. Even after she and Tione left Telskyura, Tiona bore no love for killing, but ever brighter did her love for heroics burn inside her. Heroic tales saved her, Tiona had acknowledged proudly all her life. As her love for those stories grew brighter, so did her cheer love for life. When she was younger, she thought maybe she could meet a real hero. After she left Telskyura, she wondered if she was able to become a hero. When she met Bell for second time in her life, her first time knowingly, she felt that she had finally met the hero her books praised to the highest heavens. Yet, even now Tiona wondered if she could become her own hero apart from Bell Cranel.

Tiona already knew the answer to her own question: if nothing else, she would be her own hero for the sake of the child growing inside her. Even more so, from Michael's claim, she was the heir of a throne Kali had long sat upon at Telskyura's capital. The young Amazon, if she found success, could also be the hero of her home country. Telskyura, even if is methods were cruel, Tiona had to admit were highly effective. Even so, she did not wish for her home to suffer the needless slaughter of its pitting Amazon against Amazon. Still, if she had desire for any of that, a free Telskyura and a peaceful life for her child, she had to win in the battles to come. The young Amazon locked her eyes on Hestia and Haruhime and she began to move towards them.

"Lady Tiona?" Mikoto called out to the Amazon with a frown, but Tiona pushed forward to Hestia and Haruhime.

"You're distracted," Tiona heard Hestia say to the Renard. "You need to be able to imagine time and feel it around you. Picture a flower, blooming brightly under the sun. Draw that picture again and again, that flower's beauty fading more every day until it is completely wilted and dead."

"I can't," Haruhime muttered sorrowfully. "I don't understand!"

"Of course you can't," Hestia frowned. "Mortals aren't supposed to master time. But you, you will find yourself as a leaf upon river. Time, for you and all, will be as the waters, always moving forward. The power you generated is an example of when the current speeds up. Your experience with the Seraph is an example of when the water slows, but it will never become still. One way or another, you, the leaf, will hop back onto the current. Now back into your meditation!"

Hestia raised the book of heroic tales, her eyes filled with frustration, to chastise Haruhime once more, but Tiona caught Hestia's wrist in her hand. Hestia gasped and stared at the tanned hand for a short while before turning her eyes to Tiona. The young Amazon had tears streamed down her cheeks.

"G-goddess H-Hestia," Tiona choked on her tears, "please… don't hit my… don't hit…."

"You know better than anyone that lax training will kill her," Hestia glared at the Amazon, who merely nodded. "So why?"

"I don't know," Tiona whimpered.

"Liar," Hestia ripped her wrist from Tiona's grasp. "I'm not Kali. I don't take a sick pleasure in punishing the weak because they are weak."

"Yet she still claims to love her children," Tiona shouted suddenly, her body trembling. Slowly, Tiona sank to her knees and her tears leaked all the more from her eyes.

"Yes," Hestia nodded. "She loves her children, those she made strong. Yet, I suppose there is a certain strength in asking her to let her children leave. Even a physically weak warrior can be a brilliant strategist or a cunning mage."

"If you understand that, then why hit her?" Tiona lifted her head to glare at Hestia through her tears.

"I told you, I take no pleasure in it," Hestia said softly before she turned to Haruhime and kissed her forehead. The Renard looked up towards Hestia's direction, her mouth slightly open in awe. "Yes, she is weak, but to punish her simply for being weak is the way of a war god without patience. I am a goddess of home and hearth. I punish to teach, even as Michael once taught me, and Michael taught me to wipe the tears from the eyes of my own."

The goddess stooped down to Tiona and kissed the Amazon's forehead in the same fashion. When Hestia pulled back, she offered Tiona a small smile before standing once more. Hestia then offered Tiona her hand and pulled the young Amazon back up to stand.

"Haruhime, I think we can be done for now," the goddess spoke softly and handed the book of heroic tales to Tiona. "Spend time with your friend, Tiona, before we move again."

Hestia moved away from Tiona and Haruhime back towards Mikoto and the tree she watched from. When Hestia finally reached Mikoto, she plopped next to the girl of the Far East. Hestia turned her eyes towards Tiona, who was helping the blind Haruhime walk around.

"I'm worried about her," Mikoto mumbled.

"She just lost her sister," Hestia sighed. "You have every reason to be."

"I'm worried about you as well," Mikoto turned her face towards Hestia. "You've been colder ever since what happened to lady Tione."

"Have I?" Hestia brought her knees to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. "Perhaps because Tiona is carrying Bell's child, and that my desire for my Familia, for my family, to live has grown stronger. To an extent, Tiona's loss is now my own. No doubt Loki felt the loss of Tione's life and has become just as I have, or worse since it was Loki's falna that was lost."

"Lady Tione's loss wasn't your fault," Mikoto said softly with a frown.

"No, but such knowledge does little to take away the wish that something could have been done," Hestia muttered. "We gods are more like you mortals than we care to admit, which is probably why we blame each other, the Titans, the Seraphim, and the High God before we consider our own faults. Now that I think of it, our blames and insecurities are probably why we never talk about them, either. Where would we gods be without mortals relying on us? Our faults are too heavy on our hearts when we consider them, so we use mortal reliance to ease such burdens."

"Even if such things are true, I don't think you used any one of us to escape your burdens," Mikoto watched the goddess. "Lady Hestia, they call you the goddess of hearth and home. Why is that?"

"I asked Michael that question once," Hesia muttered, though she knew Mikoto already knew the answer. "It felt odd, since I was usually alone in a temple with a single fire at its center. Even so, the flame bore no heat so long as I was alone. When Michael came with his stories, and I made friends in the heavens of Celestia, that flame grew warm. So I asked Michael why that flame was only warm when I came to care for others. He told me that a flame lives on without danger as long as it is tended to with care, and only a family can rely on each other to keep that flame going. Only a family can keep each other warm and safe, he told me."

Mikoto stayed silent and kept her eyes on Tiona and Haruhime. Hestia watched alongside the Far Eastern girl, though the eyes of the goddess stayed more on Haruhime. Her mind went back to that awful, though her thoughts strayed to just before the attack from the knights of the Empire.

"How much does she know?" the goddess thought. "How much does she have to learn before her visions break her? Or are her visions my punishment?"

"The mortal races, though of different bodies, are all one kin in spirit," a deep, familiar voice resounded in the mind. "Their beauty, greater than all the beauty of the Seraphim, lies in the likeness of their Maker, yet their corruption is as dark as their spirits are beautiful. There shall come a day, my dear Hestia, when you must use the flame you have been given to remind mortals of their kinship. Even the light of that small kindness is enough to keep the darkness at bay."

Hestia closed her eyes. Zeus had said those very words to her before he departed for the Lower World. She had long wondered what Zeus had meant by those words, and why Michael had chosen to visit her of all the gods of Celestia. Surely, she had thought to herself over many long ages, that there were more important and powerful gods that could have used flame she was given. How long had she been without wonder until Michael visited her? How long had she been alone until Hephaestus became her first friend, or until Zeus had given her the task by which she had chosen to one day descend from Celestia into the Lower World. Yet, she had not given thought to her mission for a long time, and it was Bell who had unknowingly taken up the burden Zeus placed upon her.

Bell. He had always done what he thought was right, at the risk of a greater cost than Hestia's heart was willing to take. She was no great power as Zeus had once made her believe, but Bell's courage was enough to strengthen her resolve. She couldn't help but wonder, however, how his foolishness and bravery caused him to pick up the task she had long forgotten, and now she was reminded by Haruhime's words from the night of Tione's death.

"We're the monsters," the Renard's words and look of horror echoed in Hestia's mind.

"Mikoto," Hestia stood up and cast her eyes at the Far Eastern girl, "give lunch to Tiona and Haruhime and have them get on their horses. We leave as soon as I'm finished."

"Finished with what, my lady?" Mikoto raised an eyebrow.

"I have a job to do," Hestia said with determination, though there was a sense of foreboding in her gaze. "Go."

Mikoto nodded at the goddess and grabbed the food she had prepared before running off to Tiona and Mikoto. Hestia's eyes followed Mikoto for a moment until all three women entered her gaze. She sighed softly and turned to the tree and knelt.

"Don't let this be in vain," Hestia whispered and rested her hands upon the tree. Slowly, a soft light enveloped her until her eyes had turned from blue to gold. "Lord Ouranus. Lord Ouranus, please answer me!"

"Hestia?" a deep, masculine voice returned to Hestia. "I don't recall granting you the authority to use Arcanum."

"The authority is vested by the Nidhogg Pact," Hestia answered. "I do not require your authority to use Arcanum in this manner."

"Interesting," Ouranus muttered. "You play a dangerous game, Hestia. The use of your divine power may give away your position to other gods."

"I'll cross that bridge when I get there, but it seems I'm already being hunted," Hestia said with a dash of anger in her tone.

"By the Empire, yes," Ouranus said thoughtfully. "It seems Jupiter was overthrown by Sol Invictus, and he has declared war on Orario. He sent the declaration with a piece Ares' physical body, demanding our surrender."

"He may be a match for Orario," Hestia reported grimly. "His soldiers have killed Tione, and my companions and I barely escaped with our lives."

"You bring disquiet to my heart, Hestia," Ouranus said after a pause. "But why should I concern myself with the Empire, when Orario boasts the stronger power?"

"Because the Xenos will be in danger if the Empire wins," Hestia answered. "We both know what the Xenos truly are, and the Empire taking them out will only bring Enyo Eris closer to her victory."

"Do you not believe in Orario's strength?" Ouranus asked with slight surprise in his tone.

"I do," Hestia answered honestly. "But I fear that the Empire is cunning compared to Rakia. I do not wish for Orario's mockery of Ares to be its doom at the hands of Mars and Sol Invictus."

"I shall think upon your words, Hestia," Ouranus said after another pause. "I, too, have no desire to write off an enemy we have not yet faced. As for the Xenos, I shall assess their situation. It may be that we may need to escort them from the Dungeon so we can have more allies against the assault of Enyo Eris."

"Thank you, lord Ouranus," Hestia sighed in relief.

"Now go," Ouranus commanded, his voice fading away. "You would be wise to flee from your location."

The goddess pulled her hands way from the tree and her eyes became blue again as the light that surrounded her body dissipated. When the goddess stood again, she retreated back to the others, who were already mounted on horses. When Hestia mounted her own horse, Mikoto gave her a sandwich. A small smile painted the face of the goddess.

"Tiona, how far are we from the Rakian border?" Hestia asked.

"No more than a couple days, if we move slowly," Tiona placed a finger on her chin as she recalled her past travels. "There actually should be an Amazonian camp not far past the border. The camp lies at the location of a forest, where we could use secret ways to get to Telskyura. The only downside is that travel would be slower."

"Secrecy is our priority," Hestia nodded. "Please, lead the way. From here on out, our journey only becomes more dangerous, but promise all of you, we will persevere, and we will triumph!"

…

It was blizzarding far to the north, over the Beol mountains. Fell winds howled as wolves in the night and peals of thunder were felt in echoed vibrations of the mountains' stone. The center of these mountains rose the highest peak from which the mountain chain received its name, the Abysmal Peak. Lighting flashed, revealing a silhouette of unfurling wings and a single glowing eye of deep, dark purple. It stared northward with a cruel grin, delighting in the thought of supping upon flesh and blood once more.

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