6. Maldenis
Maldenis
And so, for the second day in a row, Maldenis found himself in his mother’s house.
Technically, it was also his childhood home.
At least, if one were to define a home as four walls, a roof, and a bed.
He wasn’t abused growing up or anything, and Melora wasn’t a bad mother.
Far from it, really. He had everything a child needed to succeed—he went to the best schools, had tutors for all subjects, could do any extracurricular activity he wanted to do.
She provided him with every and all advantages in life.
She just wasn’t around much, as she was always away on work for their elders.
He barely even saw his siblings. They were much older than him, all accomplished in their various fields.
Maldenis had been from Melora’s final clutch and the only egg to survive.
Between the four walls and the roof, he grew up surrounded by myriad of tutors and nannies, and still felt utterly alone.
“I’m glad to see you have returned,” Melora said as she entered the living room, then once again sat opposite them. “While it’s true that our family is currently dishonored, it is not yet permanent. We can still fix this.”
“How?” Liora asked.
“I have spoken with the council of elders. You will stand before them tomorrow. Nine o’clock sharp, at the council center.”
“What for?” Maldenis whined. “We already know we’re in trouble. Just tell us what to do.”
His mother sent him that look again. “They just want to speak to you. Who am I to question the council? But whatever you do, do not anger them anymore.”
“Noted,” he said. “And then?”
“We must show to all of basilisk society that you are a true, genuine married couple.”
Maldenis snorted. “And how do we do that?”
“We will begin with a public information campaign, declaring you as the first couple blessed by the sacred spring. Then we will have a reception in your honor.”
“Wait, wait.” Liora held up her hands. “Are you saying that we have to have something like…a big celebrity wedding? Like in the Upperworld.”
His mother leaned back and clasped her hands together. “Exactly.”
“No.” Maldenis would rather die than be paraded around like a prize-winning Galathean boar at the Alindale fair. And from the look on Liora’s face, she probably felt the same way. “Isn’t there some other way? How about we just take out an ad—”
“Maldenis, you are skating on thin ice as it is,” his mother reminded him. “What makes you think you’ll get leniency this time?”
Liora perked up. “This time?”
“Alright, alright,” Maldenis relented, wanting to change the subject quickly. “Is that all?”
“Well, there’s the living together the rest of the year, but as I said, Medusa and I have worked it out. I think you’ll be wonderful addition to the team.”
“Speaking of which, ma’am’,” Liora began, holding a hand up.
“You may call me Melora,” she said. “Or Mother, if you like, though I won’t hold it against you if you do not.”
“Er, yeah.” She shifted in her seat. “Just to make things clear, once we do all this, you’ll help us on our mission?”
“Of course. I mean, I do want to protect my kind especially if they are in danger. Even if you hadn’t gone into the spring, I would still help you.
But, it’s not really up to me at this point, is it?
If you do this and convince everyone in Solkaris that you really are a married couple, then you’ll be able to proceed.
All the other mothers and basilisks will talk to you. ”
“Point taken.” She paused before briefly glancing at Maldenis.
There was a look in her eye that said she was up to something.
What the…?
Liora cleared her throat. “Well then, would you mind telling me what you know about Zeus?”
“Maldenis’s father, you mean.”
The outright admission from his mother struck Maldenis like a bolt of lightning.
In the last few days, he’d been trying not to think about the implication. He’d been too busy dealing with the dishonor he’d once again put on his family and the marriage he’d been forced into.
He never really thought about his father. No basilisk did, really. In many cases, it was possible for siblings born in the same clutch to have different fathers. Mothers did all the work. Once in a while, fathers popped in. On rare occasions they stayed.
“What do you want to know, child?” Melora asked.
“Just…did you have any other children with him? Or with other gods?”
She shook her head. “He was the only god I slept with and Maldenis was the only one of his clutch to survive.”
Liora nodded. “Ah, so there’s no doubt he’s the only child of Zeus you have?”
His father was a god, not just any god, but the king of the gods. Or former king anyway.
All his life, he was the black sheep of the family. The no-good fuckup. Why did Melora never tell him? Why didn’t he have special powers, like other demigods were known to have?
Maybe it was a good thing Zeus never acknowledged him. It was one thing to be a fuckup on his own, but then to have a no-good usurper and betrayer as a father?
“Do you know about the prophecy?”
“Yes. I mean, I do now, after I spoke with Medusa and Perseus.”
“Wait, what is this prophecy?” Maldenis interrupted. “You guys mentioned it, but no one’s ever told it to us.”
Liora opened her mouth to talk, but his mother spoke instead.
““Power you will have, if you seize it. Only then will you be crowned king of the heavens. But the end will come and you will be unseated. Only your halfling offspring will prevail. A beast of nature who speaks your name will free you. And the crown will finally rest on the mighty head.””
Maldenis scratched at his head. “Wow, that is pretty vague. How are you even sure that’s the reason Zeus’s children are in danger?”
Liora rolled her eyes. “Haven’t you been listening to us all this time? Perseus almost got killed, even though he wasn’t the one mentioned in the prophecy. The hunters tracked him down and forced him to say Zeus was his father, to ‘speak his name’.”
“That’s it? That’s all I have to say? Zeus is my father?”
“Wait—” she slapped her hand on her forehead. “You could be in danger now. Or Zeus could be freed as we speak.”
He stared at her. She stared back.
And nothing.
He shrugged. “Not me, I guess.”
Not that he even thought he was that special, being a disappointment all his life. Why the hell did he expect that to change just because he said those three words?
“You could still be in danger,” Liora pointed out. “When Perseus said the words, the hunters waited for something to happen. And when it didn’t, they tried to kill him anyway so he doesn’t warn the others.”
“Then I was in danger the moment you guys did that magic thing on me.”
And the moment he was born. To a father he never knew about. Melora did, but never told him.
The room seemed to have shrunk, the air thinning and growing hot. Hard to breathe.
He needed to get out of here. “I think I—”
A ringing sound interrupted him. Melora’s phone, which she had placed on the table before she sat down, danced across the glass as it continued to ring.
“What now?” Melora clucked her tongue as she picked up her phone. “Hello…what do you mean?” She blew out a breath. “Alright, I’ll take care of it.” Tapping the call off, she turned to them. “I’m afraid I have to go. But there are a few more things I need to discuss with you.”
“Sounds like you have more important things to attend to.” Relief poured through him. “Just text or call me with whatever.” Snapping upright, he slithered out of the room like his tail was on fire.
“Maldenis! Maldenis, wait up!” Liora called.
He was reaching out to push the door open when he heard her. “C’mon, I’ll drive you back to your hotel.”
“But where are you going after?”
“What’s it to you?” He stopped short. “You never cared where I went before.”
She swallowed audibly. “I mean, I’m just curious what you do all day. Is everything okay?”
“Me? Yeah, I’m fine.”
“That was intense back there, huh?”
Intense didn’t even begin to describe it. Maldenis pushed down the mini-maelstrom of emotions building inside him. Who cares if Zeus was his father? Or that he was nothing special. It didn’t matter anyway.
“Look, I have places to be, okay? I promised Makron and Charlie I’d go and do inventory for them. Now, do you want a ride or not?”
“I just want to know if you’re feeling—”
“Drop it.”
“But—”
“I said drop it, Liora,” he hissed.
The most curious expression crossed her face—hurt. While he would never admit it out loud, it made him feel a little bit bad. Just a tiny bit.
“Fine,” she said, her usual confident prickly mask slipping back on. “I just want to go back to my hotel room, lay in bed, watch stupid movies on TV and order room service.”
“Fine,” he repeated, then moved aside to let her out first.
Gods, he couldn’t wait for the year to finish and he could be free of this stupid marriage and he could go back to his normal life. He would never have to think about demigods and fathers and stupidly pretty humans ever again.