Chapter Text
“Who is Clara?” A young boy with vibrant red eyes and black hair asked his father one day, after being tucked into a lush, feather-filled bed.
His father paused where he was at the boy’s bookcase. He hesitated briefly before turning around and sitting down next to his son.
Before speaking, he carded his calloused, scarred hands through his son’s hair.
“She is the goddess of family and the home. She is the reason I have you.”
The boy tilted his head, “Without her…you wouldn’t have me? You wouldn’t have a family?”
The father smiled a bit, “No, I think I would’ve still gotten you, and I’d still have a family, I just don’t believe that there’d be any way for us to care about each other.”
“So…could she make it so that somebody can’t have a family?”
The boy’s father hummed and nodded, “Yes, she can and she has.”
The boy gasped, “So somebody doesn’t have anyone that loves them? And it’s because of Goddess Clara?”
The father let a small smile play on his lips, “She did it to teach him a lesson, to teach him how important he should consider his family.”
The boy blinked up at his father, confused and intrigued red eyes clashing with content and almost amused-looking blue.
“Does he have a family now?”
The man hummed, “Yes, although he had to work very hard for it, and in the end, it almost didn’t matter.”
“Can you tell me his story?”
The father didn’t say anything for a moment before speaking, “I can’t tell you his story, I don’t know it all, but I can tell you the story of his youngest son, the one that Clara herself blessed before stealing him away from the man.”
The boy smiled excitedly and nodded, burrowing further into his covers and looking up at his father expectedly.
His father huffed out a laugh before settling in and then speaking.
“It all started about twenty-three years ago, in the very same Empire we are in now, with a boy named…”
***
Theseus Craft was never meant to exist, and yet here he was.
Initially, it was written in the stars by the gods that Theseus would be conceived, and then, the night he was born, he was to die, and his mother was to live.
Clara, as the goddess of family, knew that, while the royal family would grieve for their lost child, the death of the boy would do nothing to the family of four in the long run.
She could also foresee how their life would play out if Theseus were to live and his mother were to die in his place.
She knew very well how different the family’s life would be.
Clara was a merciful goddess, and she knew that. She was the goddess of love, after all, and what is love and family without mercy?
So, the night that Theseus Craft was to be born, she visited his mother, Kristin, the beloved empress of the Antarctic Empire.
She gently woke the Empress up, smiling gently at the suddenly surprised look on her face before it smoothed out.
“You…you look like the Goddess Clara, I take it…?”
Clara hummed and reached forward, gently swooping a strand of the Empress’s black hair away from her face.
“In a couple of hours' time, you will give birth to a boy that you will manage to name Theseus.” Clara’s voice was soft and quiet, she was merciful, yes, but she wasn’t one to sugarcoat things.
Kristin held a small smile, “Theseus, huh?”
Clara hummed and stared at the Empress, brown eyes meeting the goddess’s own galaxy-swirled irises.
“I am the goddess of family, and so I have decided to give you a choice. A small mercy for what is to come.”
The Empress furrowed her eyebrows, “What do you…?”
“Either you or Theseus will die in the hours following his birth.” The Empress stared at Clara, mouth parted slightly.
“It was written for little Theseus to die, and you and your family to move on and recover completely from the loss of him.”
The Empress nodded slowly, “But you’re here to offer me a chance to take his place.”
Clara nodded, smiling at the Empress before her, a goddess in her own right.
“If he lives, I swear it on my own godship that I will watch over him. He will be blessed to have a kind, caring family, of that I will make sure of, and I will be the one to escort him to you personally, the day he dies.”
The Empress searched Clara’s face, “Will he live long?”
Clara’s smile was soft and caring as she spoke, voice just higher than a whisper, “He will live long enough to do everything he needs to.”
The Empress hummed, “So not long enough, huh?”
“Not in mortal standards, no.”
The Empress closed her eyes, “Phil and my other boys, will they love him as much as they would with me here?”
Clara dropped her smile and pursed her lips, “Your boys will love him more than anything in the world, he will be all that they have left of you beside each other, but your husband…” Clara sighed, “I can not make somebody love someone else, I can only strengthen what is already there and…well, the second he lays eyes on Theseus after you have passed, he will feel nothing more than a strong distaste for the boy he thinks has taken you from him.”
Kristin rolled her eyes “Of course.” She searches Clara’s face again and Clara only tilts her head at the Empress.
“Will there be anyone that could take him away from Phil?”
Clara blinked before slowly nodding, mind flashing to two particular women whose destinies she had always wanted to interconnect but had never found a way to.
“You must understand, though, Empress Kristin, if you request that of me, your sons will despise Phil up until the day they find Theseus alive and cared for.”
Kristin hummed, “If he was willing to abandon our son in the first place, I am sure that he will deserve every ounce of hate he gets from our boys and our people.”
Clara slowly smiled, “When I blessed your family oh so long ago, I never would’ve thought that you would’ve ended up with somebody whose family was cursed by me on request of your own.” Clara sighed, “I will do what you ask of me, though. He will be loved and cherished and one day he will discover the truth. One day,” Clara paused, “One day, he will be loved by not only his brothers, but his father, too.”
Empress Kristin nodded, “Then it is decided. I will die, and Theseus will live, flourish, and be happy.”
Clara nodded and stood, the magical-looking icy blue dress that she knew Theseus’ own eyes would later be reminiscent of, thanks to this meeting, swirling and swishing around her.
“You are good, Empress Kristin, and you will still be more than what you are now.”
And so, Clara went invisible, listening and waiting until Theseus was born and named before she swooped in and stole the Empress’s life and traded her soul for her son’s.
And with that, the Goddess of family left, leaving only a broken family in her wake and a boy with shining, golden hair and blue eyes that almost looked as if they had the galaxy in them, stolen from her own eyes.
Theseus Craft was born as the son of an Empress who was newly destined to become a goddess, with the blessing of a goddess, and in the presence of a goddess, and so, he
shone
.