The Claiming of the Children (The Veil of Death) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Void of Emptiness and flown into the body of her youngest daughter - but the longer she observed Aglaia’s behaviour, Eurynome realised that it was Aglaia… she alone, who had chosen to be the person she was now. “It is just as well that Aglaia’s abilities are about to be equal those of the mortal human being.” She said to Zeus.
     
    ∞
     
    Thalia was in a room lit only by candles.
    Eurynome and Zeus leant in close.
    Zeus could not help but admire the wooden beams across the ceiling for they were bedecked with the vine of grape; red and green grapes hung down with a plump and juicy fullness.
    “And there…” he pointed at silver platters overflowing with cheese and bread to complement that of the wine. Great terracotta vats were positioned along the length of the wooden counter and smaller ones in the middle of the barrel tables, situated around the room.
    “Wine flows freely and abundantly within our daughter’s home.” Zeus said.
    He licked his lips and added. “Our daughter uses the resources of the Earth to keep flowing the Rich Banquets and Festivities of Life.”
    But Eurynome saw not what Zeus did.
    The roof was full of holes – the guttering was blocked or broken and the walls had great chunks of plaster missing from them. The grapes did not hang with juicy sweetness as Zeus suggested, but with that of over ripeness. Many had been trampled and crushed into the thread-bare carpet. The bread was blue with mould and the cheese rank.
    Admittedly, the mortals within the room were in high spirits; shouting, singing, dancing, laughing.
    But they were also arguing and fighting.
    Eurynome watched as two men crashed through the doors and out onto the pavement.
    A car then sped around the corner; its tyres screeched to a halt, a blue light flashed and mortals wearing dark-blue uniforms bundled the men into the back of the car.
    A small group of people who were congregated outside the home of her daughter were waving placards and banners. They cheered and whooped in delight as the car sped away.
    Eurynome frowned down at the scene. “Our daughter is certainly entertaining the mortals_.”
    “Your daughter is drunk!” Zeus exclaimed.
    She frowned now at Zeus but remained quiet to watch as her daughter mingled with the mortals.
    “Yes…” she paused, “… our daughter has lost the art of moderation.”
    Zeus shook his head at another scene. “Why do the mortals stare deep into their drinking glasses? What are they looking for?”
    “Hope.” Eurynome stated.
    “But she walks beside you!” Zeus shouted down to the mortals in frustration. “Why name our daughter thus if you believe not in her existence?”
    Eurynome’s attention rested now upon why it was that her daughter had abandoned the art of moderation and drank to the point of passing-out. She studied her daughter much deeper than the body that she was encased within and focussed on the words spoken, the thoughts thought, the emotions felt and the actions that her daughter produced.
    She gasped aloud at what her senses had sensed and grabbed onto Zeus’s arm. “Thalia keeps the flow of the Festivities of Life…,” Eurynome faltered, “but in order to do so, she has to absorb the emotional energies that weigh the heaviest – despair, grief, sadness, self-loathing, hatred…”
    “Continue,” Zeus whispered.
    “They have cut her deep. But it is the mortals’ hopelessness that has cut into her the deepest.”
    Zeus frowned down at his daughter. “Thalia is sacrificing the very thing that she keeps safe in order to keep its existence alive? Has not Thalia regenerated her mortal vessel whilst possessing her immortal abilities?”
    “The mortal body,” Eurynome reminded him. “Can be healed but the turmoil within it cannot. Thalia drinks to numb the pain of her inner-turmoil.”
    Turning away from Zeus, she cried out to Mother Earth in frustration. “My daughter eases the burden of your children but what do you do for my daughter? There