"Please, help yourself…"
Hecate presented a silver tray and goblet, both filled with some very questionable food and liquid.
Being offered food by a witch… Eros didn't even want to guess what it was made of.
It could be frog urine or snake skin, for all he knew, and he definitely wasn't eating it.
Turning his gaze away from the mysterious meal, Eros wisely decided to steer the conversation elsewhere and cut to the point.
"Goddess Hecate, I've come specifically today because I heard from Nyx… that you were in need of divine essence?"
At the mention of business, Hecate's expectant look (hoping he'd try the food) faded, and she nodded.
"Yes… that is indeed true."
Now somewhat adjusted to his presence, her demeanor began to settle. The panic and nervousness from before had diminished.
Still, her hands, clasped tightly in her lap, gave away her inner tension.
"I do need some divine essence…"
Hecate was, in a way, a refugee.
She came from place, where the terrifying Earth Mother Cybele ruled with blood and fury, her ways were far too brutal for Hecate to endure.
To the west lay the Egyptian world, where the great serpent Apophis threatened to devour all light.
To the north, in the harsh lands of Scandinavia, the conditions were too unforgiving, perpetual wars between the Nine Realms and the ever-present Wild Hunt made life unbearable.
By comparison, Greece was a paradise.
Even the Titanomachy, which decided the fate of the pantheon, had only affected the leading deities. The battles weren't widespread.
Once Zeus claimed the throne, ushering in an age of law and rationality, the contrast was even starker.
Thus, Hecate chose to migrate to Greece to avoid the chaos of other worlds.
But as a foreign goddess, she knew full well that power was everything, even in this peaceful new land.
So she refused to let her divinity erode like Eurynome, who demoted herself to just another ocean goddess.
Instead, Hecate retained all of her original authorities, but to do so, she needed ample divine essence to stabilize them.
Her recent assistance to Demeter had earned her rewards: a new divine origin as daughter of the agricultural goddess, and the official role of Persephone's protector in the Underworld.
But for someone like Hecate, a great triple goddess, there was no such thing as "too much" divinity.
Eros nodded at her explanation and retrieved a sphere of divine essence.
"It just so happens that I possess a pure essence, the divine core of Perses, son of Titan Crius."
Perses, a Titan of Destruction, was such an obscure figure that even Eros barely remembered any myths about him.
He had been wiped from history, a defeated god not even worthy of a story.
Cronus still had some believers, he was, after all, the former King of the Gods and father of Zeus.
But Crius and his children? Just cannon fodder.
Pallas became a stepping stone for Athena, portrayed as a childhood friend accidentally slain by her.
Perses left behind nothing, not even his wife, Asteria, who was taken by Zeus.
Even Astraeus, god of stars, would have his authority split into the countless modern constellations.
The more Eros thought about it, the more he realized:
Immortality doesn't mean safety.
If anything, gods suffer more than mortals. Their stories are written, and rewritten, by the victors.
The divine don't die. But they are erased.
Still, that wasn't Eros's problem.
Zeus was still in his prime, and Greece wouldn't collapse anytime soon.
Pushing the divine essence toward Hecate, Eros smiled.
"This is useless to me, but quite valuable to you. Think of it as a thank-you gift, for helping suppress Hades's authority that time."
"To gain something, one must first give."
This was Eros's standard tactic.
For kind goddesses like Hecate, a small gift up front usually brought larger returns down the line.
Hypnos often complained that Eros was too generous, giving away divine essence like candy.
But Eros was simply strategic.
For someone like Hypnos? He never even considered giving her anything, because she'd take it without guilt and never return a favor.
But Styx, Athena, and Hecate were different.
By offering something they didn't ask for, Eros created a sense of unearned debt. Even if they knew it was a trap, their pride wouldn't let them accept it so casually.
Sure enough, just as Eros expected, Hecate froze, then quickly declined.
"That day, it was Nyx who helped you, not me…"
"And besides, Demeter already paid me. I don't need anything from you."
Eros had seen this twice before.
But this time, he was actually a little wrong.
Hecate was not like Styx or Athena.
Her temperament wasn't naturally that kind or polite.
She only acted this way because the person offering the gift was Eros.
Eros wanted to win her over, not knowing that she was also trying to win him over, which is why she acted like this.
"I really can't accept it."
"Then think of it as my apology, for my earlier rudeness."
Two people with secret motives began pushing the divine essence back and forth like an awkward gift exchange.
And as they did, Hecate's body slowly began to shift.
Without warning, she transitioned from youthful maiden to graceful adult.
Eros fell silent, not because he gave up, but because he was too distracted.
The gauzy robe she wore began to tighten as her curves swelled beneath it, the once-loose fabric now clinging to her shapely figure.
The gradual transformation, from delicate to mature, was a truly mesmerizing sight.
For a moment, Eros forgot his goals. He just watched.
Noticing his sudden silence, Hecate followed his gaze.
She looked down at herself, and realized the change.
"Apologies. I lost control again…"
She pulled on her black robe, hiding the view.
"My body is always shifting, it never stays the same. That's why I rarely show my true form in public."
Hecate explained calmly, but Eros's eyes lit up.
Changing constantly? Eighty transformations a day?
Wasn't that… auto-morph perfection?
This novelty got him very excited.
"No worries. In fact, I should've looked away."
Eros smoothly changed the subject and stopped pushing the essence back.
"Since you don't want to accept it as a gift, then let's say it's payment for a favor."
"A favor?"
Hecate tilted her head, curious.
"I've heard you represent chance and randomness, the unpredictability of fate. Is that true?"
She nodded.
Indeed, one of her divine roles encompassed luck and misfortune, the possibility space of all things.
Though truthfully, that role belonged to a god who was never born, Poros, the God of Possibility.
Poros was meant to be the second child of Metis, the god of creativity and opportunity.
He embodied pure potential: where 1 + 1 might not equal 2; where nothing was set in stone.
Ironically, it was the Goddess of Constants and Inevitability, Ananke, who prevented his birth.
She erased the possibility of his existence with her unbreakable laws.
Thus, the God of Possibility was never born.
Hecate, as a foreign goddess, simply picked up the fragments of that unfulfilled divinity.
"I need your blessing, Goddess Hecate, in your domain over randomness and chance."
"I don't need good luck… nor bad. I seek only the chaos that exists in-between."
This was something Nyx had taught Eros.
To avoid the detection of Ananke, the Goddess of Constants, Eros needed to mask his trajectory.
Otherwise, Ananke would see him as a gear out of sync, and target him for elimination.
But with Hecate's help, his fortune and misfortune would cancel out, forming a neutral chaos.
If Ananke rolled the dice behind the scenes, she would no longer see the result.
It was camouflage.
Exactly what Eros needed to escape fate's crosshairs once he left the Underworld.
"Hmm… I suppose I could do that."
Hecate considered it. Though the request was unusual, it wasn't beyond her power.
"But are you sure you don't want a lucky blessing instead?"
"No, thank you. Please just follow my instructions."
Eros shook his head firmly.
A certain one-eyed demon had once told him, a 100% failure is still 100% predictable. Just invert your expectations.
A blessing of luck still obeyed fate.
Only chaos could resist it.
"Alright then. I understand."
✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦
100 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter
For Advance Chapters, please visit and consider joining me on P(a)treon!
p(a)treon.com/Lnee
You can also access my other translated fics on P(a)treon!