|
Lestat Beaufort grew up in the life of a typical demigod, child of Hephaestus. He went to camp at 11, and ultimately made it to adulthood. At 18 he went on to a college so that he could pursue a career in some type of engineering. He loved to build things, and being a child of Hephaestus, he was quite good at it.
At 24 after getting both a bachelor's and master's in engineering, he moved back home to Quebec to start his own design engineering firm. He also had a close friend, a daughter of Athena, who worked with him. She designed, he built, but he never saw her as more than friends, despite her feelings towards him being deeper.
As his firm became more and more successful, he caught the attention of Techne, she started to visit him under the guise of having plans for him to build. She loved his work, and would visit him multiple times. Eventually he got up the courage to ask her out, and they went on a few dates, he still wasn't aware she was a goddess as Techne didn't have her own cabin at camp. That all changed when they started sleeping together and she found out she was pregnant, one day when she came to visit after a bit of an absence, she came with not one, but two, baby twin girls wrapped up in blankets. She told him everything, and of course being a demigod himself, he was perhaps more prepared and less shocked of the news in general.
Lestat made his friend Chenoalynn the godmother of his children, though deep down she was envious and furious that not only had he fallen for a goddess, but that he had children with her. They were a constant reminder that she was just his friend, and no more. The kids were raised always knowing their Greek heritage, and as soon as they were old enough to hold swords, their father started training them to be prepared for what was to come.
As Oriana and Maisie grew, they often felt a bit sad and perhaps bitter at the rules the god placed to not allow their children much access to their parents. In school they would often be made fun of for being raised by a single dad and not really knowing who their mother was. As they couldn't very well tell people their mother was a Greek goddess, no one would have believed them. Of course it didn't help, that they would often hear Chena making snide comments about their mother being a good for nothing whore.
Around the age of 10 some smaller attacks started, but mostly only when their father was around, as at those times their scent was the strongest. He decided at 11 they should get a chance to experience camp during holidays, to be trained by more than just himself and Chena. At first they enjoyed it, but seeing so many other demigods, raised by single parents, many with greater struggles than they faced, made them quite sad, and even more disheartened with the way that the gods were running things.
At 15 tragedy struck, Oriana was out at town with friends, when they were taken by surprise and she was taken. No one was sure who or what took her, and Maisie was beside herself with worry. It wasn't even a full day when a ransom note appeared, quite literally appeared, at the entrance to camp. Someone had her, and it gave cryptic clues to where. It even said to go alone, which she almost did, but a couple of her friends, as well as her father and Chena, all refused to let her go alone and went with her.
After fighting numerous monsters, they were led to a cave system, but before they could enter, they were attacked by the chimera, they were taken by surprise, and Maisie had been a bit apart from the others, scouting the entrance to the cave. Chena saw that her godchild was in danger, and before the chimera could attack Maisie, Chena dived in-between, taking the full force of the attack. Her injured body crumpled to the ground in a heap, as the others raced over to help. By the time the monster was defeated, Chena was barely alive, and was far beyond the help of Ambrosia. She died in Lestat's arms, her last words to him, "I love you.".
Knowing he still had to save his daughter, they went into the cave system, but he insisted on going in front, using his powers to light their way with fire. They found a bit of a maze, and eventually came out in a fairly large cavern. In the centre stood Medusa, her back turned to them. Quickly the four took precautions so they wouldn't have to look directly at her if she turned around, and while Maisie and her friends were distracted, her father moved closer to Medusa.
It was here things got really strange. Medusa started talking to Maisie's father like she knew him, while Medusa was focused on him, she didn't see her sister anywhere, or any cages or something she might be held in. So she started to listen closer to what was being said. She heard a story that would change her life forever. Apparently while her dad had been in college, there had been an accident at his forge, his face and eyes had been badly burnt (which being a child of Hephaestus with a higher immunity to fire, should go to show just how bad an accident it really was.) He would heal, but he would have to wear bandages over his eyes for months. During this time, Medusa had been out hunting demigods, and had caught his scent, but upon seeing his condition, pitied him.
Because she could relax around him, as she couldn't turn him to stone, she actually started to open up, showing a long lost human part of herself from long before the incident with Athena that cursed her to the hideous form. She even found herself falling in love with him, though once he was finally healed, she stopped coming around, afraid he would no longer feel the same about his "beloved nurse". She watched angrily from the sidelines as Techne swooped in and as Lestat fell in love with Techne, anger, resentment and jealousy burned inside Medusa.
She finally decided to tell Lestat the truth, but by then Techne had left him with twin daughters, and instead of believing Medusa, he killed her. Once she finally reformed she plotted her revenge, and had waited years for this moment right here and now. Suddenly she moved aside and revealed a statue behind her, the statue of Oriana, his beloved daughter. When Maisie and her friends realised what had happened, they moved in ready for a fight, but Medusa caused part of the cave between them and Lestat to cave in forcing them to turn back and find another entrance.
While they did that, Medusa offered Lestat a bargain, his life for his daughter's. Medusa would use her powers to turn Oriana back from stone, if he agreed to be turned to stone himself. Looking over at his daughter, a tear slide unhindered down his cheek, he knew what he had to do. He simply nodded, but told her, in order to agree, he wanted to see his daughter was alive. Medusa turned and did something that turned Oriana back into a person, the scene that lay before her scared her senseless, Medusa's back to her, her father looking straight at her, avoiding Medusa's gaze. He looked right Oriana, and told her he loved her, and her sister, and that they needed to always remember that. Her expression quickly turned to that of confusion and fear.
Just then the others had finally found another way in, before they could get to them in time, Oriana and Maisie both witnessed their father suddenly turn and for a split second before he became complete stone, he simply looked right into Medusa's eyes, and said "I'm sorry, so so sorry." Those were the last words he would ever utter, for as soon as he was pure stone, Medusa cried out in rage, and broke the statue into a million tiny jagged pieces. The events that ensued, neither girl would properly remember in their rage, but ultimately Medusa was defeated.
That day, the girl's lost the only family they had besides each other, and of course a supposed mother who wasn't even allowed to really spend time with them. They went back to camp for a bit, but after a few months, decided they could no longer tolerate the way the gods did things, and left, never to return. At first they went back to Canada and applied for emancipation. Their father had been quite well off when he died, so the girl's would be nearly set for life if they were careful, they travelled a bit, and were always on the look out for when Medusa reformed, as they always had a particular desire to kill her.
Finally, through their travels, they heard of the Broken Covenant, being tired of everything and what's been done to them, they decided they could do a better job at it all, and joined Ortu Justitiae.
|
