Both Odessa and Zarios searched around the room to find the source of the voice.
"What was that?" Odessa asked.
"No idea."
"I hoped you two would figure out who I am from my voice," it spoke again. Then suddenly a human-like figure appeared. It had wings, wore a light white cloth that covered about half of its body. "People used to know me from my voice long ago."
The duo were terrified, did another being beside Tartarus show up this time?
"Please we do not want any more trouble," Zarios said. "We had enough already."
"Trouble? Had enough? That explains something," the angel-like figure replied. But do not worry, I have no come to harm you two for I am mostly neutral. My name is Hermes, the god of trade. I was asked by a friend of my friend to come and see you two, but I did not expect an underworldly smell. Surely you two have gotten involved into a very major issue. Mind telling me the story?"
Odessa and Zarios looked at one another.
"We should tell him everything," Zarios said to Odessa, she nodded. What else other than a god would be best to help them with the curse?
Zarios told Hermes that whole story from his side, and Odessa did the same. Hermes kept nodding at their explanations until they were done.
"So as soon as Tartarus left his jail, he started causing problems," said Hermes. "I have to report this to the top gods."
"Wait, can't you find a way to help us dispel the two curses?" Odessa asked.
"It is not that easy. Well, I have a way but I need permission from our king Zeus. I do not want to get a beating for going over my limits. If it was a mortal matter, then I have more than enough authority. But with issues involving gods and immortals, I have to get Zeus' approval.
"And how long would that take?" Zarios asked.
"A minute,"
"You must be joking," Odessa said.
"You think we need days like you humans?" Hermes smiled and disappeared within the blink of an eye.
After exactly a minute Hermes showed up to the two again and said, "Well, I did not expect this, but Zeus wants to see you two."
That was fast, Zarios thought.
"Zeus himself wants to see us?" said Odessa.
It was very rare for Zeus to ask mortals to visit him, especially those with no unique features like Odessa and Zarios.
"Indeed, I am also quite surprised but this is just how he is. And this is perhaps one of the reasons that made him better than our previous kings, Kronos and Ouranos. Anyways, he wants to hear the stories of you two with his own ears. And the words of my king are a must to me, so I will need you to come with me to the heavens whether you like it or not."
"Sure, we will come. It would be an interesting trip," said Odessa.
"This would be the first time ever that a human, no two humans, ever stepped on the heavens. It will enrage many gods and demigods, which will make it more fun. But to me I do not really care, the heavens are just a place like many other places. Who really gets to decide whether it is holy or not? Not even Zeus can decide on this."
Zarios initially thought Hermes was a being similar to Tartarus, arrogant and brutal. But no, it turns out there are kind and humble ones. So even the gods differ greatly from one another just like us humans, Zarios thought.
"Alright, it is not like we have any choice on the matter," Zarios replied. "So when do you want us to be there?"
"Now."
"Sure," Odessa replied instantly, her eyes glowing passion.
"Haha, you sure are a hasty lady are not you?" Hermes said. "The place should be to your liking I assure you. But there are a few rules that you two have to follow to ensure that no harm shall reach you two,"
"Which are?"
"Do not talk to any god, or demigod, just do not speak to anything unless I give the permission to do so. Many gods will be staring at you with either hatred, curiosity and will try to anger you. All of these scenarios would be bad for the two of you because the situation will be like a human talking to an ant, really I am not joking here. The gods in the heavens can easily kill thousands of humans without breaking a sweat.
"I agree with you on that, I have personally experienced how painful that can be," Odessa said. So we won't talk to anyone beside you."
"Correct, that is, besides Zeus and me. Be humble with Zeus as much as you can. If you anger Zeus he will place his wrath upon you two that is much, much worse than the games of Tartarus. Zeus might even leak his rage to the rest of humanity.
Gosh, what have we gotten ourselves into? Zarios thought. He did not want to trouble himself with gods but he has no choice.
"Alright, we got it. So could you send us to the heavens already?" Odessa asked.
"Sure," Hermes replied. "Hold on to me tight, but do not touch my wings. I won't be going at full speed because your bodies won't be able to handle it." The two did that and waited.
Zarios felt a huge fan, ten times larger than a plane blowing its wind at him when Hermes flapped his wings. In a few seconds, Zarios saw himself outside the solar system, and within a few more seconds he could see the whole Milky Way galaxy below him. And after racing through areas that made little sense to him like orange clouds, beamy rings, and walls of blue fire that took in total ten seconds to race through, Zarios looked at structures akin to the pictures of ancient Greek he had seen numerously on TV and paintings. The same but they looked perfect in a way he could not describe. The most striking structure was the statue of Zeus, larger than mountains and at the very center of the place. The sky was stuffed with white clouds that Zarios could see nothing beyond them. There were also colors he had not seen before, a lot more than the seven colors of a rainbow.
"This place is unlike anything I have ever seen in my life," said Odessa, her face full of joy.
"Of course," replied Hermes. "What do you think the heavens are? If you two are lucky, extremely lucky, you may be able to live in the heavens. And by that, I mean luckier than any human because not a single human has managed to live here.
Zarios supposed that to be correct. Humans have barely managed to leave Earth to even think of reaching this place.
***
If Zarios could simplify all the beings he was looking at, they were mostly a mixture between humans and animals, or basically hybrids. There were beings like a Minotaur, a mix of human and a bull. There also creatures like a medusa, a combination between a snake and a human, and many other beings of similar structures.
"Were they all born in here?" Zarios asked.
"Most of them," Hermes replied. "There were some gods who were born on Earth, or as we gods call it Gaia, our great and first mother. But that was a long time ago. Now we do not associate ourselves with earthly matters anymore. We realized that the closer we are to Gaia, the closer we are to tragedies. It took us a long time to leave Gaia, unfortunately, simply because we did not want to abandon our mother. No life forms stayed alive when we fought on Gaia. Dinosaurs that you humans keep discovering countless fossils went extinct due to one of our wars we fought. And they are just a fraction of all the creatures that went extinct. So, in summary, the more we involve ourselves with Gaia, the worse it is for everyone. This is why when we agreed to abandon Gaia 3,000 years ago we also changed the name of Gaia to Earth so that the people living on it stopped associating the name to bloodshed."
"So the stories we humans have of you occupying Greece 3,000 years ago were all true?"
"Yes, Greece was the last place that we occupied, and the first place was Egypt. Some of the stories that have reached you humans were true because many gods loved to boast. They kept fake records of remarkable acts, whereas, in reality, they were weak gods. Other gods were humble; they watered down many of their exploits like Hercules."
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