Page 35 of The Night Belongs To Lovers

“My love, do you see what is happening?!” Olympius cried, pointing to the grand chamber’s main window. “That unending light is unnatural. It is the work of the gods, I tell you. By now, I should have departed from this place, sailing on the night winds to join you as you lead our army to its final battle. But you see what comes through that opening! I am trapped inside! This light is a bad omen.”

“I know quite well why the light has not begun its retreat behind the mountains,” the false Coriolanus stated plainly, aggressively pushing Olympius off him.

“My love?” Olympius stepped back, staring incredulously at the burly figure before him. “Why push me away? What troubles you to act so?” Confusion and hurt sat firmly upon his face.

The false Coriolanus turned its head toward the window. “Yonder, the Olympians have finally made their move. At this very moment, they are decimating our army. We have lost.”

“What!” Olympius’ voice reverberated throughout the chamber. Enraged by this unexpected revelation, the elder deity’s eyes widened, turning pitch-black. His body levitated off the ground as tendrils of pure darkness emerged from the gloomy corners and crevices of the chamber; they swirled and lashed around him likefrenzied serpents. “So near the hour of my victory, they now dare intercede on Rome’s behalf?! Those Secundus bastards!”

“Yourvictory?” the false Coriolanus questioned with a smirk, emboldened by Olympius’ momentary pause and its contempt of him.

“Am I not your partner, Olympius? Am I truly just a weapon to be directed and used? And are you not Secundus? You speak so hatefully about your brethren. How you sound like I assume your Maker must have, from the scraps of details you have deigned to feed me. Do you see yourself as a Titan, Olympius? Above even Zeus? Above me, undoubtedly!

“The Olympians commanded us to fall back, and at first, I said nay, I shall not! I remained loyal to you. Alas, they quickly overpowered me. You made me too weak in your selfishness and fear of creating and loving an equal. Even now, you elevate yourself above me. In the end, I could do nothing but comply with the will of Olympus.”

Olympius turned away in shame, as part of what he just heard was true. He had feared a godling with too much of his blood in him, but he never, not once, thought of Coriolanus as his inferior. After having already discussed and settled the matter with his beloved, that suggestion hurt him dearly. To even bring it up again!

“Beloved, I have never thought myself above you. You must know this by now!”

“Must I?” the false Coriolanus growled. “As I sat on my backside amidst the dirt and dust, defeated, watching the enemy’s superiorforces slaughter our men, I realized how foolish we were to believe we could win this war. Your arrogance and conceit have led us to this point. Did you ever truly believe, Olympius, that this fool’s errand would end any differently.”

With expressive pain across his face yet fury in his eyes, Olympius silently commanded the twisting tendrils to wrap themselves tightly around the false Coriolanus, pulling the larger, heavier figure closer until they were face to face. The darkness pulsed with energy like it was alive.

As the animated blackness held fast to its false flesh, the once-Titan remembered what the darkness felt and tasted like; it was comforting in its coldness and thick and delicious, like Ambrosia. Oh, how it missed being its master.

“Why are you saying these vile things, beloved?! Have you gone mad? Tonight was to be my—ourmoment,ourvictory over our enemies! To show them that they cannot destroy and conquer with abandon, tearing lives apart, wrenching innocents from their kingdoms, their—”

“But is that not exactly what we—whatyouhave done?” interrupted the false Coriolanus with a bold, mocking tone

“What? I have not—I did nothing—I—”

“You cannot get the lies to leave your throat,” the false Coriolanus scoffed. “You know well that beneath your brazen superiority, you are no better than the Romans, including your mortal father.”

“Enough!” Olympius seethed as he set the false Coriolanus down with neither force nor fury onto a silk-covered lectus. “I will hearno more of this madness! What have the Olympians done to you, beloved, to make you speak such hateful, untrue things I know you cannot mean?!”

Even in his anger, he treats his lover with a gentle touch. I must strike harder with my condemnations and accusations, slather them in vitriol and spite, for him to see his wretched Coriolanus as a false ally and a treacherous lover.

“All those proud and wise immortals have done is open my eyes, Maker, allowing me to finally see you as you truly are—a frightened, bitter isolationist. You have kept me away from others of our kind, a prisoner, too afraid I would see past this blanket of fabricated emotion you have tricked me into thinking is love. No—true love!What blasphemy!

“The Olympians accuse you of using your dark power to control me. They claim that my thoughts and heart are no longer my own and that you have manipulated me since my Becoming, making me a pawn in your absurd revenge. How lies and trickery come so easy to you.”

“No, beloved, it is the Olympians who lie! I have done no such thing! I love you more than the Starry Firmament itself! You know this to be true!”

The false Coriolanus quickly rose from the lectus, grabbed it by its wood base, and flung it at Olympius with all the strength The Fates allowed it to possess.

As the Lord of the Night’s dark, serpentine arms quickly caught the object and tossed it aside, his beautiful, eternally youthful face showed horror and bewilderment. “You would strike out at me!”

“Yes, betrayer, fool, manipulator!” the false Coriolanus roared. “How could I have agreed to attack a nation that is under the protection of Olympus? As a trained soldier and former General in the very army you aim to destroy, I should have realized the foolishness of such a mission. The gods laughed at us and openly ridiculed our flawed strategy!

“And those thousands of brave soldiers who believed in me, trusted me? They are condemned to die because ofyourweakness andyourinability to forget the past and move toward the future. Who cares about your absurd little mortal kingdom, long abandoned by Rome and lost to time and sand?! Not my men. Not me. And now, we shall join those doomed mortals, for the Olympians shall surely come to punish us for our hubris.

“But no, Maker, I will not be destroyed so easily. I shall hasten to the gods, supplicate myself before them, and leave you to your miserable, inescapable fate!”

Speechless, Olympius was stunned by the hateful and accusatory words spoken by the god before him, whom he believed to be his beloved Coriolanus, his immortal soulmate. Truly stupefied, he could not react and stop the deceitful apparition in false flesh from jumping from the window into the abnormal daylight. All he could do was stare into the detested sunshine, his mouth agape.

Directly after clearing the window, the apparition quickly transformed into a spirit, making it appear like Coriolanus had vanished into the sky with incredible speed. To make Olympius believehis belovedhad gone to join the Olympians, turning his back on him. The apparition hoped its murderous child choked on shock and misery.

As it flew through the air back to the battle, the pull signalling the end of its time on the material plane commenced. The apparition looked down from its lofty position to view the devastation and revel in it for one last time.

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