Artemis

"Damn it!" she shouted into the night as she shook a starfish off of her soaking wet body.

"I hate the sea." As she waded ashore, her boots squelching in the soft sand, she stared at her hands, her dark veins vivid in the moonlight, her nails long and sharp again. She ran her fingers through her hair, which clung to her in cold, tangled strands like seaweed, and although she couldn't see it in the dim light, she was sure it had regained its shiny golden colour. The sea washes everything clean, even curses.

Her wounds had healed, and her vitality was slowly returning to her body. She was no longer human.

She finally returned home to her people.

She set off on her usual route to the palace, moving away from the shore, where lilacs and jasmine ran wild, filling the night air with soft, sweet scents. As a human, she would have loved this: the sounds of the sea, the dim light of the moon, and the fresh breeze coming together to create the perfect summer evening. Now, however, it didn't matter. The breeze was too weak to stroke her skin, and the warm air meant nothing if she was no longer cold.

The palace was as if eternity itself lived within it. The air was cool, clear, weightless. On the walls were frescoes: gods, heroes, memories of an ancient world. Now, on the very edge of dawn, there was only silence. She sat down on a marble bench at the verge of the garden and waited for dawn, cloaked in silence.

She used to find the garden of the palace beautiful, the way it intertwined with the atrium. She was fascinated by the vividness of the vegetation and the gleam of the immaculate white columns, untouched by time, dust, or salty water. Yes, they used to mean everything to her, but that was before she had set foot on the land of humans. Everything was different there, the flowers were not as big and they did not smell as sweet as they did now, but still. Still, she wished that one of the tendrils would be brave enough to venture up onto one of the benches. If only all the columns weren't so identically the same. Couldn't one of them stand out a little from the row? It could be decorated differently, for example. She went closer to one of them and touched it to see if someone had carved something into it, perhaps the monogram of a loved one or, who knows, anything. Gosh, she's already talking like them.

"Well, sis, are you back home again?" greeted her brother, who was almost glowing in the rising sun. The two of them could not have been more different, like night and day.

"Why are you all wet?"

She had indeed forgotten that she was wet. Using a little magic, she quickly dried herself off.

"I went swimming."

"I understand that, but where have you been? I haven't seen you in, I don't know how long." He raised his index finger to his chin, as if trying to think hard.

"A year. I disappeared for a whole year."

The man's face showed no reaction to the announcement; he remained relaxed and confident, straightening a non-existent crease in his immaculate chlamys as he took a step in the direction he had originally been heading.

"I was in the world of humans."

"Oh, well that's nice..."

"As a human." This one surprised him.

"How did that happen?"

"I don't know, I think I was cursed. But you know... it wasn't so bad. Of course, everything was new, and everything lasts for such a short time, even the good things. Still, maybe that's why I felt that every moment counts, that we have to appreciate what we have, you see?"

"No, I don't see, and if you know what's good for you, neither will you."

"This is..."

"Sis. Listen. The human world is complicated."

"I know, but..."

"But you're not human, and you never will be. Whatever curse was cast on you, it's over now. You're here, in the Citadel, with the gods, where you belong. Humans don't even dare to dream of this."

She said nothing, suddenly feeling empty, as if something inside her had broken. She just stared ahead, like a statue. She may have even forgotten to breathe.

"Don't overthink it, that's the point. There's a feast tonight, come along, I know you love this kind of thing." She hated this kind of thing. At feasts like this, the gods let themselves go and dropped their cool, mannered facades. They were just as they were. They openly wenched in front of each other while feasting on the sacrifices sent by the humans.

"I'll think about it." She attempted to have a convincing smile, but it didn't matter because her brother had already slipped off somewhere; it was sure to be very important.

Meanwhile, it had turned into daytime, and life had begun. She continued to stroll around the garden, enjoying the sunshine, watching it transform the landscape into a riot of colour. The courtyard was bustling with activity, though it was more sublime and restrained than human squares. And larger. Much larger than a man could comprehend.

In the middle of the courtyard, water gurgled in a fountain, the waves always falling in the same way. The water, like everything else, followed a learned choreography. The garden was perfect—every flower bloomed exactly when it should and lived exactly as long as it remained beautiful. Nothing ever wilted. It was a realistic backdrop for life.

The gods who lived here were timeless—immortal. They sat on their gilded chairs, walked in circles in the rotunda, repeated each other's words, or listened for hours, as if they had already said everything worth saying.

Several people were circling her, greeting her as usual, as if she hadn't been gone for a year. A year. For them, it was almost like a day. She realised that this was the worst part of it all. As soon as she returned here, she no longer felt the passage of time. From now on, she wouldn't have to wait for anything. She would not need longing, struggle, or hope. Every wish, even before it was formulated, would already be granted. But that's good, isn't it? She had always had everything, and that was the point. That was happiness, wasn't it? That's what people were longing for.

Then she saw her. Her golden brown hair, curling in ringlets, fell softly over her naked back, her dress as light as dew, contrasting delicately with the abundance of gold and silver jewellery she always wore. She was undoubtedly the most beautiful of them all, and finally someone she was actually happy to see.

"Hey,"

She ran over to her friend, almost jumping into her arms with joy.

"Hey, good morning!"

"I haven't seen you in so long. When was the last time we spoke? I can hardly remember! Tell me what happened while I was away." With that, she hugged her friend. "I missed you so much."

"What's with you, for crying out loud? We spend a few moments apart, and you already miss me?" Her friend smiled at her, but there was something strange about her smile, something rehearsed. Then she remembered.

"Oh yeah, time passes differently in the human world."

"'So that's where you've been. It must have been fun, you must have had a good rest."

She wouldn't call the daily struggle for survival in a new world relaxing. Still, it was the most memorable year of her lifetime.

"We can say it."

"Great, I'm glad we met."

"Yes... Me too." With that, her friend had already left her standing there.

Something wasn't right about all this. This day was different. It was different because it was the same as all the others. She had been gone for a year, and meanwhile, she had changed completely. Here, however, everything had remained the same. She wondered what would happen if the world ended. They, the gods, would just watch from above. Then they would wait. They would wait until a new world was built. But she's not like that. She wants to be there when the new world is born; she wants to be part of building it.

She was bored, and in her boredom, she started picking the tiny flowers of the purple wisteria next to her. She picked one, then another. There was something about the scent that she couldn't quite explain.

A new kind of meaning…

When she transformed, the smell and colour reminded her of that.

She returned to the lilacs and picked one more. Then again, and finally, she had a whole bouquet. She walked out of the garden and slowly began to move away from the palace, until the vegetation under her bare feet gave way to soft sand and she could hear the roar of the sea, the decisive crashing of the waves as they finally reached the shore, exhausted and foaming. The sea was cold blue, the sky warm grey, and the two together were dazzlingly dreamlike. She did not wait for evening, did not wait a minute longer. She had to try. She climbed onto a black rock and stared down from above, and perhaps for the first time in her life, she was tempted by the sea.

"I don't belong here."

She swallowed the bitter flowers and jumped.