![\"Artemis\"](\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3110\/4555721107_c84e6d7175_m.jpg\" "\\"Artemis\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The statue stands there, perfectly still, as though it\u2019s not alive.\u00c2\u00a0 As though it doesn\u2019t breathe.\u00c2\u00a0 As though no soul resides inside.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a statue of a goddess, half naked, bow in hand, poised as though she\u2019s already released the arrow.\u00c2\u00a0 Straight up; and every twenty or so years, when the moon\u2019s trajectory is just right, and if the cloud cover is light, that arrow, should it be flying, aims at the heart of the moon.<\/p>\n
I remember the moment well, when I captured this goddess, when I rendered her into stone.\u00c2\u00a0 See, the Greek pantheon, and others, roamed the earth a long time after losing their power, and a great many of them died in the early years.\u00c2\u00a0 They fell victim to their own boasting, their conceits, their stupid belief in their infallibility.\u00c2\u00a0 When I found Diana, who had taken the Roman name in this modern age, her smiles were sad, her heart heavy, her face showing signs of age that she\u2019d never seen before.\u00c2\u00a0 Wrinkles, in the face of a goddess!<\/p>\n
Despite my assurances that her self-perception was skewed, that she was indeed a beauty beyond compare, that the centuries had not weathered her in any way, she refused to believe me.\u00c2\u00a0 But she let me buy her a drink.\u00c2\u00a0 And she let me talk her into breakfast.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t know I\u2019d been tracking her, trailing her, tracing her from one city to another.\u00c2\u00a0 She was tired and beaten and pre-disposed, I guess, to hear what I had to say.<\/p>\n
After a few weeks, I admitted to her one tiny lie.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cI can restore you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her eyes lit up then.\u00c2\u00a0 She was so happy.\u00c2\u00a0 She was, indeed, restored, rejuvenated, reinvigorated by the very concept.\u00c2\u00a0 The few signs of age she might previously have worn were gone now, dissolved by her own excitement.\u00c2\u00a0 Because she believed me.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I made her believe, and let her believe, and led her to believe.\u00c2\u00a0 I promised the world.\u00c2\u00a0 The moon, even, to this woman who once was the moon.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d shown her things already, things that helped her believe.\u00c2\u00a0 And once I had her belief, the rest was rather easy.<\/p>\n
She posed for me, that fateful night.\u00c2\u00a0 I had a camera.\u00c2\u00a0 It was state-of-the-art, then, though it required quite a long exposure at twilight.\u00c2\u00a0 She loosed that arrow, and I pulled the trigger.\u00c2\u00a0 The camera, of course, was a ruse.\u00c2\u00a0 She believed in that, too.<\/p>\n
I still have the photograph.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps I\u2019ll show you one day.<\/p>\n
Everything else having been in place, I watched the arrow fly, straight as an arrow is wont to fly, into the upper reaches of the stratosphere before I simply could not see it anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 She knew the distance, the angle, the wind conditions; there has never been a more skilled hunter than Diana.<\/p>\n
She, however, did not get to watch the arrow.\u00c2\u00a0 The instant she loosed it, my trap sprung, and I had her.<\/p>\n
Now, you should understand something, because this is important.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn\u2019t capture her to steal her skill, or her breath, or her Olympian aptitudes.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn\u2019t intend to ransom her.\u00c2\u00a0 And certainly I wouldn\u2019t kill her; I have a thing for beauty.\u00c2\u00a0 I kept her in the garden.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, I couldn\u2019t move her; that would disrupt the field and release her.\u00c2\u00a0 As it is, she\u2019s a statue in my garden, a perfect rendition attributable to no artist, and she\u2019s mine.\u00c2\u00a0 I found her, and captured her, and I keep her now, because I can.<\/p>\n
A guy\u2019s got to stay true to his nature, don\u2019t you think?<\/p>\n
Anyhow, it\u2019s been a few decades, so it\u2019s time.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019ve got this great cover story.\u00c2\u00a0 I know who to blame, and how to do it so she still believes me.\u00c2\u00a0 That\u2019s the trick: can I keep her believing?\u00c2\u00a0 Can I make her see the things I want her to see?\u00c2\u00a0 My brethren, the giant with the red beard, still laughing and still fighting, still pompous and egotistical and unbearably smug, still lives in Stockholm.<\/p>\n
As the moon reaches that spot, not where it was when Diana loosed the arrow but when it struck the moon\u2019s heart (her own heart, in fact, a sacrifice I convinced her was necessary and inconsequential), I release the trap.<\/p>\n
Diana blinks.\u00c2\u00a0 Diana lowers the bow and draws a deep, deep breath.\u00c2\u00a0 She looks at me and blinks again and says, \u201cThe years have not been kind to you, Loki.\u201d<\/p>\n
She draws another arrow, though there was none to be seen, and shoots me before I can say a word.\u00c2\u00a0 The arrow strikes my chest and cracks my heart.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m stunned.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m speechless.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m on my back in my own garden, staring up at the moon, and the face of the wild beauty.\u00c2\u00a0 She kneels beside me, kisses my forehead, and says, \u201cYou made me blind, in your trap, but not deaf.\u00c2\u00a0 My brother, every day, and Iris after every rainstorm, whispered of your treachery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe poison in that arrow will take days to kill you,\u201d she says, pressing a blade to my throat.\u00c2\u00a0 Where does she get these wonderful weapons?\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cI can make it quick, if you tell me why.\u201d<\/p>\n
I give her a pained smile.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cWhy I captured you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy you released me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSame reason,\u201d I say.\u00c2\u00a0 \u201cBecause I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite her promise, she does not slice my throat.\u00c2\u00a0 She leaves me.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m helpless, unable to move.\u00c2\u00a0 I can move my eyes.\u00c2\u00a0 I can blink.\u00c2\u00a0 I can speak, though it hurts, but the strength flows from my limbs.<\/p>\n
Clouds, I suddenly realize, have drifted over the face of the moon.\u00c2\u00a0 Thick clouds.\u00c2\u00a0 Heavy clouds.\u00c2\u00a0 Heat lightning flashes, without sound, three or four times, but I know what\u2019s coming.\u00c2\u00a0 The first real bolt I see strikes the very spot on which Diana had stood, though there are higher things to attract the lightning.\u00c2\u00a0 It is followed, of course, God help me, it is followed by thunder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The statue stands there, perfectly still, as though it\u2019s not alive.\u00c2\u00a0 As though it doesn\u2019t breathe.\u00c2\u00a0 As though no soul resides inside. It\u2019s a statue […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,6,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkfluidity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}