The God-King, still a little dazed, said very frankly, "My dear Selene, your beauty truly exceeds my imagination."
"I think that from now on, if one wishes to describe the beauty of any being in this world, it will suffice to say, 'as beautiful as the Moon Goddess,' and that alone will establish an incomparable charm."
"I truly cannot imagine that in this world one could behold a dance so beautiful. Selene, thank you for giving me an eternal, unforgettable, most precious memory."
Though the God-King had been hooked and left a bit muddled by this bright Moon Goddess, after he settled a little, his instincts as a "master of love" still led him to speak the most moving words.
"Only, my dear Selene, you really are too cruel."
"You have shown me the most beautiful sight in this world, a beauty beyond the reach of any language."
"But if in the future I can no longer behold this supreme beauty, how painful a thing that will be."
"My dear Selene, how can you be so cruel?"
The smooth-tongued God-King's unstinting praise finally made this aloof and proud Moon Goddess lift the corners of those thin, frost-like lips by the slightest degree.
To be so lauded and cherished by this supreme God-King is, in any case, something worthy of pride and joy.
Moreover, this God-King was the one she had always silently admired, and so that joy was all the harder to restrain.
But after the cold and proud Moon Goddess heard this, she instead gently drew back the slender jade hand the God-King had been unconsciously playing with.
The Mistress of Pure Radiance turned her head slightly to look at the quiet sea of flowers at her side, leaving Zeus only a flawless profile of perfect curve.
A cool voice, like dewdrops condensed from moonlight, drifted lightly from those silver-white lips: "Great Your Majesty the God-King, among all that exists in this universe, who would dare be cruel to you?"
"If you do not disdain the clumsy dance I just offered you, then in the future, whenever you wish to see it, insofar as it does not delay the sacred duties you have granted me, I will be most glad to offer it again."
The God-King was rather regretful at not being able to hold the goddess's hand, but hearing this, he happily rubbed his hands and broke into a broad smile. "Truly? That is wonderful! My dear Selene, I knew it—one as gentle as you would never be so cruel to me."
At these words, Selene—most unusually—revealed a smile that even made Zeus deeply marvel.
In that instant it was as if the hazy thin clouds that always veil the crescent were quietly blown away by the night wind, suddenly revealing to the whole universe a boundless, sacred pure radiance.
Only, what the Mistress of the Moon said next did not quite match that smile: "Honored Majesty, I wonder—between the Moon of Olympus and the Moon of the Underworld, which shall receive your 'not so cruel' treatment?"
Zeus blinked twice, and a sense of danger instantly snapped his wits back to the high ground.
But Zeus was, after all, Zeus.
Without changing his expression, he said decisively, in a tone that admitted no doubt and brimmed with profound devotion, "My dear Selene, you must know, in this universe there is only one Mistress of Pure Radiance; in this world there is only one Sovereign of the Moon. That is you—the most beautiful, most immaculate."
"My sky is bright because you exist; my night is resplendent because you illumine it. You are the eternal pure radiance of my sky, without which it cannot be!"
"My Selene, with me at your side, who would dare encroach upon your supremely pure and noble authority? I will forever defend your honor and forever stand before you as your shield!"
The clever-tongued God-King spun words as pretty as blossoms, flawless and watertight, yet entirely beside the point.
However, how could the bright and wise Mistress of Pure Radiance argue further with the God-King?
The corners of Selene's charming lips only lifted slightly—like a new crescent: like a hook, like a blade.
Softly she said, "Thank you for your favor, Your Majesty."
Before the words had fully fallen, she turned in a flutter and made to leave then and there, without another superfluous word.
Seeing this, Zeus hurried forward and walked side by side with this moon-cool goddess.
He hastened to explain, "My dear Selene, the world and the Underworld are, after all, different. The Underworld is a realm of darkness and stillness, where the dead must dwell in lightless gloom for long ages—a truly pitiful fate."
"In this, I believe one as compassionate as you will surely feel, as I do, a deep unwillingness to see it so."
"Your brother Helios—his blazing radiance is too ardent; souls in the Underworld cannot bear it. I had thought to trouble you to bring brightness to the Underworld."
"But the Underworld is filled with chill and foulness. I—I truly cannot bear to let you suffer such indignity."
"Moreover, you already toil daily to oversee the world's moonlight and its rotations—far too taxing. If I were to add such a burden, how could my heart endure it?"
As he spoke, Zeus gently drew to him this elegant, airy Moon Goddess and once more took her cool, jade-like hand.
The Moon Goddess's steps slowly came to a halt.
Then Zeus, in a voice of infinite tenderness, said, "My holy and immaculate moon—how could I allow the dull toil and dark foulness of the Underworld to stain your pure and sacred being?"
Selene stilled her displeased steps, lifted her eyes to the God-King's handsome, earnest face, and at last nodded in acknowledgment. In a soft voice she said, "Your Majesty speaks true."
"The universe now is indeed ever more flourishing. Fortunately, you have established this new Heavenly Order, or the gods would be endlessly busy. Even so, the matters related to my authority are truly too many."
The Mistress of Pure Radiance paused slightly, her fine brows knitting faintly again, and spoke slowly, "To speak plainly, I am indeed somewhat tired, and I truly need some helpers. For now, relying only on the few nymphs in my temple is far from enough. There are many matters beyond their ability to take in hand."
Zeus nodded again and again and smiled with a bow. "My dear, that you understand is wonderful indeed. I truly do not wish for you to take on even a little more fatigue. Rest assured—I will always stand at your side. The Underworld's Moon shall only be the Moon of the Underworld; it will never show you the least encroachment or disrespect."
Selene's eyes—silver-white and bright like her own pure radiance—rested quietly upon Zeus.
Suddenly, she smiled.
With but that light smile, the incorrigible God-King felt his heart leap all over again.
In a tone of such utter gentleness that even Zeus felt flattered, Selene said softly, "Your Majesty, would you truly be willing to ease my labors and add a few helpers who can assist me?"
Zeus did not hesitate in the least and replied at once, decisively, "Of course!"
Selene nodded lightly—and in the next moment, she moved into Zeus's arms on her own!
And she gently yet irresistibly pressed this supreme God-King down upon the Moon's domain, into that mountain-spanning, soft, fragrant sea of flowers!
The Mistress of Pure Radiance had already pinned the God-King beneath her.
Her cool, fragrant silver-white lips were already at the God-King's ear.
That faint coolness Zeus felt most clearly.
"My beloved, majestic Majesty… then what are you waiting for?"
"Our children, conceived together, will they not be… my best helpers?"
The clear-mooned murmur at once swept away all of the God-King's reason.
No one knew when, but a fresh coolness had already fallen into the God-King's embrace.
This coldly radiant Moon Goddess had, without reservation, thrown herself wholly into him.
Tonight, the moonlight was truly beautiful.
Across the universe, sights fairer than this moonlight were few indeed.
The world speaks of beauty by saying, "a beauty like the moon."
To have even one-tenth or one-twentieth of this moonlight is rarest beauty under heaven.
What, then, of the Mistress of Pure Radiance herself, the very incarnation of the eternal bright moon—how peerlessly unparalleled must she be?
The supreme, immeasurably broad Lord of the Sky is, by nature, the moon's one and only master.
No matter how immaculate, how flawless, how pure in radiance, how limpid and bright the moon may be—
She can only dwell within this sky.
Only in the sky's embrace can she unfurl all her beauty and light to the fullest.
Only in the sky's arms can the lonely moon possess the richest, most eternal security.
With the full moon aloft, there is the true homecoming.
And only with the moon in his keeping can the sky reveal his boundless clarity and brilliance.
In this sacred, immaculate, dazzlingly beautiful lunar domain, for the first time, no clouds gathered, and thunder did not roar.
There was only the brightest, purest sky, gently enfolding the cool, gleaming, eternal moon.
And the pure, lucid moonlight likewise blossomed for the first time in the sky with matchless brilliance, casting itself upon the world in a proud and lofty manner, a splendor not one whit inferior to the blazing noon.
How could the Lord of the Sky, facing this peerless bright moon, bear to dim even the slightest trace of her light?
For a time, the whole world saw sun and moon shine together.
The new moon was like a hook and like a bow; the crescent spread like a silver ribbon over the court; the full moon brimmed bright and hung in the heart of the sky.
For the first time, the supreme Lord of the Sky tasted the strange feeling of being led from the very beginning.
This proud pure radiance of the moon, though with little experience, was determined to hold the reins if she could.
Soon enough, however, she was led.
How could the greedy Lord of Thunder allow this bright moon to maintain the initiative over him?
The moon, after all, belongs in the sky's embrace!
And though the bright moon was pure and full, this eager novice attacker, facing the seasoned and invincible God-King, naturally slew eight hundred of the foe at a cost of three thousand to herself.
The gap was far too great.
Her line was in ruins, while the other had yet even to exert full strength.
Still, all the efforts of this radiant Mistress of Pure Light were repaid with the Lord of Thunder's most generous and magnificent favor.
Once he took the absolute lead, the Lord of Thunder was unstinting in bestowing upon his beloved bright moon the most consummate, supreme holy honor!
The eternal Mistress of Pure Radiance—Selene—thenceforth would signify the "full moon" of night's perfection!
And under the generous gift of the Lord of the Sky, the Light of Hope, the great Father of holy spirit and the order of fate and time, three goddesses, each as bright and beautiful as their mother, sovereigns of the phases of the moon, were born from the hazy pure light that suffused the world!
The first goddess had two aspects, her form shifting ceaselessly between light and dark.
At times she was a pure maiden; at times an aged crone.
When the light shone, the purest and fairest maiden appeared within it; when the light withdrew, a white-haired crone emerged from the maiden's form.
She symbolized both youthful beauty and elder experience.
This was the supreme revelation of the "new moon" and the "waning moon"!
Birth and rebirth, beginnings and endings, death and transformation—
The God-King generously granted to the bright moon's eldest daughter a portion of the "ever-revolving cycle" he had taken from Iapetus.
Her sacred name was—Eoskia (Greek, meaning "dawn" or "rebirth").
The second goddess was a bright, lively young bride-like goddess.
She was lovely and radiant, charming and gentle, brimming with endless hope.
She was the perfect embodiment of the "first quarter" and the "last quarter"!
She is the potential of growth, the promise of new hope, the independence of responsibility, and the vigor that nurtures!
The God-King bestowed upon her the authority that signifies "purity."
Her sacred name was—Calanthe (Greek Kallanthe, meaning "beautiful blooming").
The third goddess was the youngest, yet the most mature.
She was a voluptuous, full-grown goddess, radiant with maternal light.
She is the mother of fertility, endowed with seasoned wisdom, generous and abundant.
The God-King gave to her the authority that signifies "brightness."
Her sacred name was—Telesphra (Greek Telesphra, meaning "bringer of completion" or "she who brings to maturity").
And their great Mother, under the personal nourishment of the Lord of the Sky, the supreme All-Father, was formally exalted from the "Mistress of Pure Radiance" to the great Lunar Mother who presides over "wholeness" and "plenitude"!
From that moment, the seasonal cycles of nature, the growth and passing of all living things, the rise and fall of the tides, and the swelling abundance that nourishes all—these, under the eternal moon's light, were hers!
With the sacred union, the Moon's supreme authority, from that instant, spread like a soundless tide to cover every aspect of the world.
Meanwhile, a faint drizzle bearing the moon's pure gleam began to patter down upon the earth.
The Mother of All, Gaia, who had only just collected herself, saw the whole land drenched once more by this rain imbued with a special divine charm, and at once loosed an unvoiced curse.
The words were not pretty.
Lost in the Moon Goddess's gentleness, the God-King did not at all realize that the gentlest moonlight, with his tacit consent, had now deliberately displayed its grandest spectacle.
That pure moonlight shone proudly and sacredly upon the whole world—its brilliance in no way inferior to the day's blazing sun!
The whole of Mount Olympus seemed transformed into a silver-white realm of moonlight. The gentle, cool silver radiance was everywhere, enveloping all.
The few goddesses lying in wait at Zeus's temple now ceased their conversation.
They all lifted their fair heads and looked up at that unprecedentedly bright full moon, each face growing as cold as that moonlight.
For a time, in the various temples on Mount Olympus, more than a few goddesses could not help smashing their beloved ornaments.
What they muttered in their hearts was no kinder.
And Hemera, the Daylight Goddess, who had only just recovered somewhat from the lassitude of her reshaped divinity, upon seeing the hazy, sacred moonlight roving unrestrained across the sky, could not hide the deep envy in her clear, pure-white eyes.
At once she hesitated no longer and sped, as fast as she could, quietly to the Underworld!
An exceedingly warm, exceedingly pure light thus burst into that realm which had only recently gained a faint pure glow, startling the Night Goddess at once.
The Night Goddess, only recently awakened, was happily gathered with her newborn children.
The whole family was in celebration. She did not even care to bother with the stir upon Olympus, only curling her lip with a scornful hum before continuing the feast with her children.
All her children were at her side, and she was introducing to them their two newly born sisters, who wielded supreme laws.
All the children the Night Goddess had once borne—including Hecate, who had just received the honor of "Moon of the Underworld"—looked upon these two new sisters with the deepest envy in their eyes.
These two were conceived by their supreme Father and their most exalted Mother through the most profound union at the source!
They are the deities of the fate-web that governs all within the Heavenly Order—honors unsurpassed, power incomparable!
Say nothing of the Night Goddess's other poor children—Hecate herself, who presides over a complete world and is the Underworld's Moon, still stands far below them in rank and authority.
In the new Sacred Just Order, aside from the primordial goddesses, and the primordial Titans and His Majesty the God-King's siblings, anything related to "Fate" is without doubt the strongest!
Even so, these children born of Night—though their laws' essence is not very "positive"—are very harmonious in family unity.
In the hard days past, they had only each other for warmth.
Now, facing these two newborn sisters, aside from irrepressible envy, they had no ill thoughts at all.
The goddess Nyx looked upon the children before her, and her heart felt a wholeness of happiness it had never known.
She felt she had gained all she had ever wanted.
What she now possessed was once beyond even her boldest dreams.
Her only tiny regret was that her eldest son Aether and her eldest daughter Hemera still could not truly be reunited with her.
And just as Nyx, moved by the scene, thought of her eldest son and daughter, she felt, with boundless joy, that her firstborn daughter had returned!
The source of "Light," which had been forcibly taken by the old God-King Uranus, had for the first time returned to Night's embrace!
Not until today did Hemera dare return to Night. In the age of Uranus she did not dare; in the age of Kronos, still less.
Even though Zeus now permitted her and her brother to have two mothers simultaneously, she could not boldly enter the Underworld.
On ordinary days, when she met with Mother Nyx, it was always upon Mount Olympus.
Only because what she wished to speak of today was not fit for Olympus did she venture to come home.
The instant the Night Goddess felt Hemera step into the Underworld's domain, she raised for her beloved daughter the gentlest curtain of Night.
With the brightest of star-lights, she guided Hemera's way, leading her to the temple of Night to be reunited with her family.
The moment Hemera beheld Nyx, she saw her Mother, radiant as never before from supreme refreshment, shining with incomparable brightness.
A faint blush rose upon Hemera's already fair, lustrous cheeks.
Seeing Mother's arms already open to her, she did not hesitate to throw herself in, and with a voice full of tender longing whispered in Night's ear, "Revered Mother, I have missed you so much."
Nyx felt a great joy in her heart. Now, aside from Aether, the whole family was together.
She gently stroked her beloved daughter's shining, pure-white hair and said softly, "Hemera, my beloved child, how is it you have time to come from Olympus today?"
The bright Daylight Goddess's fair cheeks flushed slightly.
Though the blush faded in an instant, Nyx saw it clearly.
Hemera said softly, "Dear Mother, I… I have missed you too much. And… and I sensed we have a few… a few new sisters at home, so I hurried back to meet them."
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