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My ruin, Aphrodite,
Thus followed from my whim.
Now therefore take and punish
And fairly cut away
These all unruly tusks of mine;
For to what end serve they?
And if thine indignation
Be not content with this,
Cut off the mouth that ventured
To offer him a kiss’.”
Dax readied the final lines but spotted me and lost his breath to a gasp.
To not leave his audience wanting, I finished the poem for him, for while he might have been among muses, I was the god of poetry.
“But Aphrodite pitied
And bade them loose his chain.
The boar from that day forward
Still followed in her train;
Nor ever to the wildwood
Attempted to return,
But in the focus of Desire
Preferred to burn and burn.”
Like Dax, the other mortals gasped upon noticing me and bowed their heads, but Calliope and her muses applauded, both for me and Dax’s beginning.
“Forgive me, friends,” I said to muses and mortals alike, “but I seek the company of young Dax for myself, if I might borrow him.”
The gathering parted, scurrying in different directions to leave me and Dax alone. No one would question a god, but it was still polite to ask.
Dax sat up taller from how he’d been lounging, as if yet unsure if he should fall to the ground in supplication. I was glad he did not and sat beside him.
“It should be no surprise coming from a courtesan, but your eloquence in reciting one of the great poems was quite compelling.”
“As was your ending of it,” Dax said. “I do usually prefer happier tales.”
“It was happy for the boar. At least in that iteration. Although, as I am sure you know, the real boar—”
“Was Ares,” Dax finished, smiling, and seeming to relax out of his stupor at my appearance. “We were taught many disciplines along our path toward becoming courtesans. One favorite of mine was always storytelling, especially stories of the gods and their mortal entanglements.”
“Entanglements,” I repeated. “A kinder word for it than how it ended for some.”
Dax’s smile drooped, and I thought perhaps he understood I was issuing a warning. I did not intend for any harm to come to him, but I could not promise that none would.
