The First Wife and the Wedding Night
The air froze over all over again.
Metis turned her gaze on me. Poseida's hand drifted toward her trident. Vines sprouted at Demeter's feet, and Hestia clutched the hem of my robe. Even Aides and Hera held their breath.
Gaia was still smiling.
There was nowhere left to run.
Gaia's plan was madness. She wanted to march out four-course crop rotation and rice transplantation into the Bronze Age, restore the Suez Canal, and plant her eggs in Rome and Constantinople before the world even knew what cities were. And yet—
It was useful.
No. That was the problem. It was far too useful.
I couldn't simply follow her blueprint to the letter, but I couldn't afford to make an enemy of this woman either. Gaia was the earth itself. The freedom of Cyclopeia and Hekatonkheires hung on her goodwill, and the incomplete divinities of Aides and Hera seemed tied to her as well.
Above all else... blonde hair, blue eyes, curves that left nothing to the imagination. She was gorgeous.
Metis and the other goddesses weren't ugly by any stretch, but—who in their right mind would look at that woman and think primordial goddess, and my grandmother's generation at that?
'So I've made up my mind.'
I rose from the throne and stood before Gaia.
"Sister."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"I shall take you as my first wife."
Someone swallowed audibly. Gaia's smile deepened.
"A wise choice indeed."
"However."
I took hold of her wrist. For the first time, Gaia's eyes widened slightly.
"There is something I need to confirm first."
"And what might that be?"
I leaned my face close and whispered, barely audible.
"Mare Nostrum."
"Constantinople. Rome. Crop rotation and transplantation."
Gaia's smile stopped for just an instant.
As I thought. This woman knew. She knew the future I knew.
"You will have to explain yourself—somewhere with just the two of us."
"Just the two of us, you say."
Gaia looked down at the wrist caught in my grip, then lifted her eyes back to mine.
"You are more impatient than you appear, Your Majesty."
"That's a misunderstanding."
"Were you not the one proposing we retire to the bedchamber?"
The temperature in the audience chamber plummeted. Behind me came the sound of a wine cup being crushed.
"I meant that we should talk."
"One can talk in a bedchamber just as well."
Gaia pressed herself closer. The scent of earth and flowers brushed the tip of my nose.
"It seems we each have a great deal we are hiding from the other, so the longer the night, the better—don't you agree?"
'I'm dead.'
And yet letting go of her wrist now would have been stranger still. I kept hold of Gaia and started walking toward the corridor beside the audience chamber.
"This way, for now."
"With pleasure."
A few steps in, I glanced back—and met Metis's eyes. Her mouth was smiling. Her eyes were not.
I poured everything I had into my stare, desperately.
'Metis. I'm sorry. But you're not being discarded. Second wife. And honestly, the first wife in all but name whenever she isn't around. Please sort out the others and Melisseus for me.'
I focused every ounce of my being into that look, praying it might carry like telepathy.
Metis narrowed her eyes. Then she sighed.
"I did tell you—this husband takes entirely too much looking after."
she murmured.
She'd understood. The goddess of wisdom read my sloppy excuse for telepathy perfectly.
Metis rose from her seat. "Very well, Your Majesty."
She gave me a thumbs-up.
'Second wife. Accepted.'
Her lips shaped the words, and then she wheeled around at once.
"Now then, let's start directing traffic."
"What traffic?"
Poseida asked coldly.
"If Lady Gaia is the first wife, then I am the second."
"Says who?"
"Existing bonds, merit in the war against Cronus, and administrative capability. Weigh it all together and the conclusion is obvious."
"You expect the one who rules the seas to rank beneath you?"
"Then would you care to take over every document and ledger in the palace?"
Poseida's mouth snapped shut.
"'Our seas' and 'canals' are all very well, but... first, could I trouble you for a clean spring or river somewhere near Olympus?"
"Just what do you take the goddess of the sea for!"
When Poseida snapped at Metis's demand, Metis answered calmly.
"Ambrosia and nectar."
"And what do those grow from?"
"......"
"And never mind us—but do you think the nymphs who wait on us could live without water?"
"Fine! I'll do it, alright!"
Metis next turned to Demeter.
"The agricultural plan for Naples and Sicily can wait for now—let's start with installing the gates at the entrance, as His Majesty mentioned."
"...Do I look like your handmaiden?"
"You do want to feed Zeus properly, don't you?"
"...Fine. This once."
"Lady Hestia, please see to the residences and meals on Olympus first. The Rome posting comes after that."
Hestia nodded with a sour face.
"Lady Hera and Lady Aides, please rest while going through Lady Gaia's plan and sorting out the parts that touch on your own domains."
The two goddesses' faces brightened. They had work now—proof that they hadn't been left out of the new order.
"Adrasteia, Ida, Amalthea."
The three nurses straightened up in unison.
"See to the audience chamber and the bedchamber first. The three of you will attend His Majesty as well."
Adrasteia and Amalthea smiled. Ida was the quickest to get her bearings toward the bedchamber.
"Lord Melisseus."
"Yes."
"Take stock of every person and every supply in the court."
Melisseus stood there dazed for a moment. How long had it even been since he'd arrived from Crete, and already work was piling up?
"...Then what, may I ask, is my post?"
"Court Herald, for now."
Metis considered briefly.
"And Acting Chancellor."
The life drained out of Melisseus's face.
Dragged down the corridor, I looked back at the scene.
Not a moment ago, these goddesses had been ready to tear the world apart over the seat of first wife. But the instant the work was divided up, they simply... started moving.
Gaia had become the first wife. Metis the second, and de facto chief of staff. The ranking among the remaining goddesses still sat there like an unexploded bomb.
Five Titans still needed freeing. The palace needed rebuilding. People had to be sent to Byzantium and Sicily, Egypt and Rome, Chersonesus and Gibraltar.
And right now, I had to talk with Gaia alone.
Three days since I'd opened my eyes. I had toppled Cronus and become king of the gods. I'd gained a first wife and a second. The mountain of unofficial wife candidates remained untouched, and now an empire-building plan had landed on top of it all.
'So where exactly did my plan to live an ordinary, quiet life go?'
No one answered. Only Gaia, her wrist still in my hand, smiled gracefully.
"Now then, Your Majesty."
At some point, someone had been guiding us—I no longer knew who.
"Shall we spend the whole night talking about our future?"
The bedchamber door closed.