Prium?

Same.

~The King and his Queen~

"Who are you?!!!"

For the first time, came a deep, thick, and slightly fuzzy voice from wine. Vulcan and his lover turned to their back. Twas the king of Aiowa, probably seeking an attention or meaning, to bring the insolvent peace and quiet to a halt.

The king of Aiowa walked out of the hollowed space towards the front and nodded slightly to Vulcan, eating up Athena with a slightly contemptuous gaze; a gaze stalked by tons of questions.

"And who are you too?!"

This question was directed to the archetype Athena in the heart of the arena.

"What did you mean by the first question? Are you doubting the authenticity of my queen?"

Vulcan argued, his ogle pacing the grim face of the king of Aiowa. But both of them were deprived of they comeback as they all heard a sudden wail from the heart of the arena.

Everyone turned in that direction, even the crowds caught up in the intensity of constant murmurs allowed the awe to seep into their consciousness.

They all watched the archetype Athena start floating in the air, and navigated her way towards the elevated spot of the royalties. But getting to the spot, instead of landing on the brick pavement, she remained hanging in the air, before the pavement holding up the royalties; she was facing the dignitaries directly.

"Isn't it obvious?"

She started, her voice loud enough to cover three leagues from where they were. There was a charm to her voice, like there was a compelling spell tucked into it. No matter how hard one tried to ignore her voice, one found him/herself totally bounded to those drooping words.

She continued, as a deadly silence annihilated every sense of being.

"How tragic for those who have eyes yet can't see. Aren't the blind better than you all?"

"Answer my question directly and stop playing around the words."

The King of Aiowa extended his bravery and stance on courage, despising fear and cowardice. But the archetype put up her left hand and twirled two of her fingers, thereby suspending the king of Aiowa in the air; making him float.

"Put me down now. Or you would see the wrath of a king. A king who isn't only a king but a great warrior."

She rolled those fingers and the king was turned upside down, still hanging in the air.

"Do something you. Didn't you claim to be Athena?"

The King of Aiowa attacked Vulcan's lover with words, yet she retained her stance shooting a continuous puzzled gaze at the archetype. She probably couldn't believe her eyes.

"What can she do? Can you give what you do not have?"

The archetype cackled and quoted,

"non potes dare quod non habent."

She suddenly turned to the crowd, her back to the dignitaries, who kept their dumbfounded odds plastered on their faces.

"I am Athena, the daughter of Zeus and have come to claim that which is mine. That which has been for so long taken away from me. Taken away by a naiad who claims to be me."

She scoffs, every of her respiratory activities loud enough for everyone to here. Even the beats of her thumping heart were not hidden from them. But her heart did beat as though she had two. The beats lapping and overlapping, too clear enough to be an echo.

She kept her argument abreast,

"But what do we say about this naiad? It isn't her fault. She had been brainwashed by the petty tales of her father, Oragus. She had slept with an arch god and had earned several abilities with which she had deceived you all. But I would not destroy her for her atrocities. For I am the holy daughter of the great Zeus, I shall ignore her wrongs and be generous and long-suffering."

She raised her arm, and suddenly caused a wave of an unidentical kind of current which swept across the whole place and hit all the living soul present.

But Vulcan's lover seeing what the archetype had done with the outstretched arm, quickly put both her hands to cover Vulcan's nose and eyes; Vulcan had been holding unto her all along.

After the wave had swept by, Vulcan's lover let go of his face. Point in time, the archetype called with a great roar,

"Bow before your queen, everyone!!!!"

And as though they had all been bewitched, they all bowed... each man at which ever spot he was. Even men who were in the forest bowed down. All those who had heard the roar and felt the wave of current were tied to her wills and orders. Orders they would carryout while they didn't know they were doing.

Only Vulcan and his lover remained standing.

"Pretend to bow."

Vulcan's lover urged him. He argued with his wild stare but she pleaded with him. He did.

Suddenly, the archetype turned to Vulcan's lover. In her face was a constant smile. She floated off and landed before Vulcan's lover.

"What do you think would happen now, Pallas? Even the daughter of Zeus is sabotaged!"

She chortled and continued,

"I will decide your fate. Your fate and that of the child you carry. Vulcan is mine and everything that should be yours."

She let out a great shriek and turned from her back to the crowd,

"Rise all. Rise at the call of your queen."

And as though they had all woken up from a short sleep, everyone rose up with heavy eyes. Even Vulcan!

"How do you feel Vulcan?"

Vulcan's lover asked, trying to touch his heavy face. But he knocked her hand off and walked away from her to the archetype.

"My queen."

He bowed slightly. Pallas was puzzled but she did nothing.

"What shall we do to the Usurper, people?"

The archetype called at the people. Without hesitation, they started chanting,

"Kill her! Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!"

The agitation continued for a while longer until the archetype raised her hand to shun them. Then she called,

"To show to you that I'm not a vallian who kills an enemy let alone a friend. We shall let her live but miserably. By that, we give her another chance to rethink her life and repent."

The crowd grunted at first but one after the other began to concur. When she saw that she had gotten all the votes, she turned sharply at Pallas and threw her arm fiercely in the direction of the arena. And at that, a windy force threw Pallas out of the pavement into the air, making her fall in crazed velocity towards the earth. Not in straight wise, but a sloppy one.

The people were whooping in joy as she fell on and on but when she was about to crash, the archetype made an hesitation, leaving Pallas hanging in the air, just an inch from the earth. Her face hovering directly over the earth which stunk of the blood and sweat of the gladiators.

The action of the archetype met a criticism at the hesitation but then she let go and Athena fell on her stomach.

The crowd began to stone her all sorts of things. From stones to woods, food, gabbage... cussing and cursing her in the name of all the gods.

Not all the things aimed at her hit her, not all eluded her.

"Celebrate, you mortals. A goddess has come to live amongst. And celebrate the fall of a fool!"

The archetype called and the wildness of the crowd scaled altitude as the pace of the ambush increased,

"Die slut!"

"Be gone from here!"

"Perish."

"Zeus annihilate your generation."

Came the constant call.

"Die!!!"

That was Vulcan. At the voice of Vulcan, Pallas rolled over, her face to the sky as the hurled hit her. The bright sun suddenly was gobbled by a cluster of thick gloomy clouds, and a strong weird army of winds shook every corner of the Colosseum.

She looked towards the elevated pavement of the royalties. As soon as she caught the sight of Vulcan, she looked away. Down at herself, but the pregnancy was no longer there. Her protruding belly had flattened.

She let out a deep sigh and vanished. Her last word,

"Don't give in easily, Vulcan!"

Then a malign monsoon - ruthless rain!