"A small, dense object only twelve miles in diameter is responsible for this beautiful X-ray nebula that spans 150 light years. At the center of this image made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is a very young and powerful pulsar, known as PSR B1509-58, or B1509 for short."
From: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/b1509/b1509.jpg
**
Sophia thought of Aeneas as she sat alone staring at the north window in her room. The myths told that Aeneas was made a god when Aphrodite requested it of Zeus, but it is plain to see that is not a true story. He may have been favored by Aphrodite but she was not his real mother, her mind continued. His mother was a descendant of Our Mother, the first woman with whom all on Earth are also descendants. Aeneas is one of us. All we can do is hope Aphrodite still favors him. We hope she favors our species in particular, though I don’t know why she should. The goddess of love would let us rest in our Home within the womb of Mother Earth. She would let us sleep next to ground on which our great grandchildren play. An interruption. A knock on her privacy door. “Who is it?” she asked.
“It is I, Aeneas. I am ready to meet with the Supervisor if that is your will.”
Sophia opened the oak door with a smile. “Good to see you.” Appearing beardless and in his early twenties, she surmised him with a smile and added, “You are looking quite handsome, my young man.” Tall and handsome, she gathered, lanky and soldier-like with wide brows and a cute wide curl off to the right side of his head. No doubt a scrumptious lover also ran through her mind.
“And you are looking as wildly beautiful as Our Mother herself. You could be her twin.”
“I have been told so, but I only met her once and I don’t think we look that closely alike.”
Aeneas chuckled democratically, “We are all cousins – bound to see the similarities.”
She pointedly asked, “Are you ready to meet the Supervisor? Do you feel up to it?”
“Yes, why do you ask, Sophia [Our Appointed Leader is an understood attachment to Sophia’s name]? Of course, I would have respectfully declined otherwise. Is it true Supervisor has never been seen?”
She quipped, “Rumor has it so.”
“They say such rumors even run Home.” Both laughed cautiously at the wonder in the thought. “In any case, I trust Aphrodite is with me as I assume it is Hades that I formally meet.”
***
Mid-afternoon. Salamon relaxed in the public bath with Kassi at his side. “How does that feel?” he asked while slowly rubbing her upper spine and massaging her shoulder blades.
“Comfortable, Salamon,” said Kassi in a low voice. “You always have comfortable and private hands even in this public place.” She paused, “Neck please.” As she turned her head to the right for his firm hands she caught a glimpse of her childhood friend, Agathia at the other end of the pool. She immediately turned and gave Salamon a quick peck on the cheek for private fun and the public innuendo it might cause. Never be outside of who I am inside, mostly.
***
In the nearby library ragged with boxes of rolled scrolls piled along the walls sat Marios and Thales in somber contemplation. They were quite aware that they were being avoided by the others.
“Staunch friends?” suggested Marios. “They avoid us here, yet wait anxiously for their orders.”
“They consider this only a protest, an act of solidarity.”
Marios raised his right eyebrow, “And you consider it more, Thales?”
“I don’t know. I saw a goddess on the path today to our morning meeting. Her eyes were devastatingly black to wide brown with a thin black encompassing the division of brown to the white of her eyes. She appeared from a distance as an old lady with a cane. But, when she grew close and looked up from the path she was Beautiful and Captivating. She was a goddess I am sure of it. I have told no one but I take it as a sign . . . .”
“Or an omen,” interrupted Marios.
Thales’ blue eyes grew, “Why would a goddess walk by as I was on the way to the meeting? I take it as a sign Mt. Olympus is more involved than I suspected. Why, would they become involved if this is only remains a peaceful protest? There is no way we could win a war against Zeus.”
“Perhaps he would enjoy such a battle,” smirked Marios. “Only the Fates know.”
“You still think the Supervisor is less powerful than Hades?”
“According to Our Mother he has always been known as the Supervisor. No one has seen him, true. But there is an order beyond us in this Place. Our heartsansoulsanminds are intact. This was built for our Being, for whatever the reasons. He has always shown himself to be a Custodian. He holds this Place together as Mother Earth holds our Home.” Marios sat quietly for a moment. “I would accept a path, a single path that one of us might follow to Home so that sheorhe might rest in peace in the earth below the sun and moon and stars for a time. We could take turns and everyone have an equal time in one small piece of ground. The place where one of us might be closer to our great-grandchildren. Is it so much to ask?”
“But one of Sophia’s demands, one voted on, is to return Home to speak to the Living.
“I would take the compromise.”
“How is that a compromise, Mario? One of the ten thousand to go Home to rest?”
“The rest of the Dead will follow the ten thousand for necessities sake if nothing else.”
“We could be thrown in the pit with the Titans,” reminded Thales in a slightly disguise whine.
“I doubt it,” responded Mario. “If so, we would already be there. Do you think the All-Knowing Zeus would put up with this when with a bolt we would be nothing but our souls’ ash?”
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