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Beautiful as Aphrodite.
That was one of the compliments Helen had heard most during her life. And the first time Helen saw Aphrodite in person she wondered if that was the way others felt when they saw her, and for the first time all the chaos that had surrounded her life since childhood for her beauty finally made a bit of sense.
There were days the goddess came to visit her when Paris was on the battlefield.
Sometimes Helen felt like telling Aphrodite to leave, to die and leave her alone forever. And sometimes she said, sometimes the words could make Aphrodite feel guilty, but most of the time she just laughed. And she always came back.
But usually Helen enjoyed the visits, her life was one of solitude in the palace. There were women in the palace during the battles, but none of them came to Helen for friendship or comfort. It was not just envy or insecurity caused by its beauty as in her youth, it was hate. It was because of her that the soldiers surrounded Troy, and for her that the population suffered and men died every day.
So Helen liked the company of the goddess, the conversations, the light touch of her divine fingers against her hair and the strong lips on her neck, the touches that no woman in Troy or Sparta had given her.
Sex was better than with Paris. He still wanted her and were rare days when he didn't require her presence in his bed. But still ten years of fighting is a long time, to look at the consequences of his actions, for the woman he had started it all for, and to start hating her. She wondered if it was better with her because the goddess didn't despise her, if it was for being with a woman, or for being with a goddess, or simply for being with Aphrodite.
Usually in the days when they did that Aphrodite would leave soon after climaxing, but this time she kept giving light kisses on Helen's shoulders, usually that made Helen smile and sigh, but this time she kept still.
“You know many men would cut their arms off to be in your place. Or in my place. Quite probably what they would really like would be being in between of us, could you imagine the guy's satisfaction of being with two goddesses at the same time? ”Aphrodite said smiling.
Helen didn't smile back.
“I am not a goddess. Being the daughter of God is not the same as being a goddess. ”
"Obviously, but do you speak in any specific aspect?"
"You are free"
“Honey, no one is truly free in this world except for Zeus”
“You're still more free than me...In Sparta, if I had screamed, if I had protested more, if I had cried, would you have been compelled to break your promise to Paris?"
"I don't know. Probably not. But if I had known everything that would come of it I would probably have done many things differently. But what has happened has happened and thinking about what could have been is pointless. All you can do is try to deal with the consequences of the things you did. ”
“Or the things that were done to you”
"I suppose so" Aphrodite said and kissed Helen's forehead and with it made her fall asleep.
When Helen woke up the next morning Paris had not yet returned and Aphrodite was already gone and on the table by the bed was a golden apple. And she knows it's the real one that started all that mess.
Maybe the goddess forgot the object there, maybe it's a cruel joke from Aphrodite. Maybe it was a prize. Maybe it was a lesson.
Probably just comfort, just something Aphrodite felt Helen deserved to have.
The apple was cold and heavy, quite pretty really, but in the end it was not worth the trouble it caused. Like that war. Like her beauty. Like everything in her life.