full and glorious as the feathers of an Angel, they were there nevertheless, if not lacking in lustre and magnificence the Gods readily provided.
Now, as for the rest of her body, there were no protruding bones or paper-thin sickly grey skin over her feminine frame. Even her breasts looked voluptuous and held high in the bodice of her tight dress. Seeing such beauty made me question the origins of the larger Harpies. I also wondered if this was how she’d looked before falling from Zeus’ good grace and plummeting straight to Hell? But out of all my questions what I wanted to know the most was what little left of her soul did she bargain with? What did she offer to gain back this beauty and more importantly, who was the one that had the power to grant it to her?
These thoughts brought me back to what the Eye had shown me before this bitch had turned up and knocked me to the ground. Could this really be the work of the one she called Master? A master that Lucius didn't yet know was in fact his brother.
The broken pieces of both past and future the Eye had shown me was like trying to make sense of a picture on a broken vase. I didn't know what had happened or what was still yet to come, but I knew one thing and that was Lucius had a brother and that brother utterly…
Hated him.
“So, what's the plan, just sit here and wait for the cavalry, ‘cause, I'm sure that boyfriend of yours is gonna be tearing the place apart and no doubt cursing me to damnation?” Nero asked looking around the cage as if to look for weaknesses, although I have to confess our chances of getting out of here surrounded by half crazed Harpies wasn't looking good. In fact, it was looking the opposite of good and little did I know, it was about to get a whole lot worse.
Which prompted my change of subject.
“Tell me about the Harpies,” I said, trying to get both of our minds off the situation unfolding in front of us.
“Why, you planning on writing a book?” she asked in a sceptical tone.
“No, but I am a firm believer that knowledge is power and the more I know about these bitches, the better prepared I'll be.” At this she shrugged her shoulders and said,
“Why the hell not, it's not like I have anything better to do and no doubt singing kumbaya will just get little miss stick bang happy over there too excited.” I had to laugh at this.
“Tell me about the three, starting with the Queen,” I suggested, for what I knew of Harpies was very little, other than being damned and punished by Zeus. Most of which I had read in Greek mythology books.
“Okay, so the quick and easy version of it is that Harpies, when first created, were known to be the hounds of Zeus, with the sole purpose of stealing whatever he wanted.”
“It's starting to sound like Oliver Twist, minus the wanting more gruel part.” Nero smirked and carried on,
“Yeah, well, every supernatural being with a brain and ears knows about Zeus being the most egotistical of the Gods. So then it’s not surprising that he would create four sisters, each one being as beautiful as the next.”
“Must have been one Hell of an aviary,” I mused making her chuckle again.
“And knowing Zeus, most likely looked like a caged sex club with feathers, or maybe he just had a thing for birds…who knows, as he certainly had a thing for women, and lots of them. Anyway, over time it seemed that the oldest sister must have gotten bolder or some shit, because this one in particular didn't really take too kindly to being forgotten about.” Looking at the Queen now as she strutted her importance around the Eye and I couldn’t say that it surprised me.
“Think of it as a naughty child trying to get the attention of their parent.”
“Did she throw her little birdy mirror and bell out of the pram?” Nero replied,
“Needy bitches, eh…yeah they started making life difficult for Zeus and not surprisingly really, I mean how many women does one man need…anyway…”
“…this is the part where he banishes them and punishes them to Hell and all that?” I interrupted making her scoff,
“Hey, I thought I was telling the story.” I laughed, holding up my hands in surrender and said in the words of my Aunty Pip,