Thetis' pov:
Queen Hera is the strangest woman I ever met.
First time I saw her she was in her weeding dress hand in hand with Zeus, she looked elegant and regal as queen should be. Her chin held high and proud like a peacock.
But I saw something within those eyes of power...
Fear
Her body was softly trembling most celebrated nor noticing or.... Maybe some did but choose to ignore it.
Those who cared had been elder goddesses as myself, Rhea, Gaia and Zeus' ex-wife Themis, Demeter who bore Kore the same way her younger brother forced her other sibling to throne of queen. Hades stayed silent like us, I heard him confide his mother that he worry for his sister, there's no way Zeus would treat her right forever, he fear the insult she has to bear ahead as blow to her dignity and pride as goddess of marriage.
Poseidon celebrated more vigorously than anyone.
If you think he's blissfully unaware then you're wrong.
Zeus bragged to Poseidon about it arrogantly.
Oh! Those two! They don't realize the damage rape have on woman? Do they?
Goodness! I understand what she had to go through!
The feeling of bugs crawling to the skin, the shivers of horror to the spin, helplessness for the violator is stronger than we'll ever be!
The phantom ache and pain that torment us even after bruises leaves no traces, the tremor and horror when you would not feel safe anymore. Not confident in one's self, as if a torn cloth.
I understand not because I had to go through it, I saw others. Goddesses and nymphs going through it, when they would feel shame for no reason, feeling naked as newborn when actually clothed tightly! What was those poor women's sin?
Beauty? Then this curse in disguise is to be damned to Tarterus!
Up to then I pitied Hera. Even after the wonderful honeymoon of 300 years _when she had the envy and jealousy of all women by it divine or mortal_ I still pitied her.
I know her happiness won't last forever.
Something that you cherished and treasured for a long time is suddenly lost... The anguish is greater having never obtain it.
Zeus should have never given her the illusion. He knew better, his incapability of going devotedly forever, to one woman.
And forever is a long time to us, for our kind.
My impression of the queen started to change when she secretly told me that she's pregnant, and it's not Zeus' child.
I started to panic internally.
Hera? Between all people!? The queen, her proud majesty straining from her martial bed?
The goddess of marriage out of all divine beings?
The joke of the century, no, the scandal of the millennium!
But then I quickly denied it, we, goddesses, can have children in many different forms our very blood cheers for reproduction, sometimes we needn't to bear our children in the womb for them to greet the world.
Surely, there's another way the queen is with a child that's not her husband', other than sex.
Beside being scared and astonished at beginning I recovered my calm after shamefully letting my jaw drop.
Oh dear, how unsightly of me.
Whoever because the silly display's reward was to hear the queen's charming chuckle it made damn worth the shame.
"Can you help me raise my child?" Requested que... No, Hera just pure Hera. In private, she's neither a queen or lady to me.
From then on we became secret friends.
She said her motherly instincts told her for some reason that her child won't fit in Olympus, his childhood better be joyful with a great mother figure as Thetis, me.
The youngest and most beautiful of Rhea's glorious daughters disbelieve her capabilities to protect her child?
I didn't delve into doubt soon after, though I hate to admit it, baby Hephaestus is ugly by any standards, not just gods' standards.
"Surely he wouldn't stay like this forever." Hera insisted. "He isn't a born monster, eventually his features would be normal and would be far from hideous even if they aren't particularly outstanding."
Her faith at the moment was astonishing.
The child was innocent, yet...
Budging veins in his face and head, blood lines all over him and bluish purple skin as if drowning.
It's a face only a mother would love.
Hera almost dropped him at holding him for first time, but of course she reacted fast and didn't let him fall.
Hera struggled to embrace the appearance of her son.
She admitted this, never intending to hide it.
I frowned at this, concerned for this child's future, as well as my friend's mental health.
"I love this child, but I know he would suffer so much if he stays in the mount of Olympus, he deserves all affection and respect from only his birth's virtue.... Yet, I failed him by unconsciously transferring my negative emotions to him while pregnant..." Hera still has her posture straight and elegant, her chin slightly raised but I saw the defeat in her eyes, the devastation of feeling she let down her child.
That she's incompetent
For the whole day, after being handed Hephaestus and of course agreeing to raise him, I was quite dazed.
Life for women, even for ethereal and honored goddesses can be terribly sad.
I glanced at the child in the crib.
'I promises I would raise you to be different from those scums, I'll make you feel loved and never lose faith in love of others towards you like your mother does... My sweet child...' I caressed his thin black hair as fondness bubbled inside of me