'I am sorry,' Mila thought in the wind as she looked at Hermes sleeping in the healing water.
A few months had passed since she had sought Hera's help due to their inability to heal the sons of Zeus, a few months of physical and mental torture where Zeus had continued to inflict terrible pain upon them.
A few months where Hera, despite having promised them help, had done nothing but watch them being brutalized and terrorized by Zeus. It was by design. Hera knew that the more the suffering of the healers at the end of Zeus continued, the more desperate they would become, and the more leverage she would have.
Around her were her sisters, half of them physically healthy, while the other half were visibly injured, burned by Zeus' lightning.
All of them were standing in the water around them, looking at Mila, their sister, with hope in their eyes.
"Start the healing," Mila said, and together they poured their energy into the water.
Slowly, the healing water, already a powerful healing tool, started to glow, saturated by the power of all of them.
'I hope she didn't lie to us! I hope it will work, we won't be able to continue like that for much longer.'
With those thoughts in mind, she placed her hands on her chest before taking out a glowing orb of concentrated ball of potent healing essence.
"This is our only chance, please work," she said, pressing it onto Hermes' chest, slowly, the essence was swallowed in the body of Hermes as the others continued to pour essence into the water to stabilize the comatose god, whose body started to glow.
"Do you think it will work!?" Maia asked Leto.
The two goddesses standing outside the door looked hopefully at how the healers were trying to bring her son back from his state of unconsciousness; a mere door was no obstacle for them. In fact, it was an obstacle for noone as all the gods of Olympus had their complete attention fixed on that room.
"Everything will be alright, it will work, you need to have confidence in...! In your son, he is taught," Leto replied.
She was about to say that she needed to trust the healers, but realized it was a little inappropriate after all, even though they were indeed doing everything they could to save Hermes, it was really to save themself, at this point, they knew that they would have already killed Hermes if they could.
The light shone through the room, visible from all over Olympus. It took nearly half an hour of blinding brilliance, the light started to dim.
"Splash, splash, splash,"
All of them fell into what remains of the now-empty pond of healing water.
But it didn't matter, noone was paying attention to that because under the gaze of all Olympus, Hermes groans and his eyelid flutters.
"Boom, crackle,"
The door of the room exploded at the same time as a thunderbolt crashed into the room.
Without any care for anything, Zeus and Maia bursted into the room as Hermes, after months, finally opened his eyes.
"Son!!" Both of them appeared beside Hermes
"Mother... Father... I am still alive?!" he groaned, trying to get up.
"No, please stay down," Maia pushed back and let him lay back down on the water. "You have been unconscious for a long time. I was so afraid for you."
"Son, you are alright. I thought I had lost you,"
Zeus said, looking at his now awake son in the arms of his mother, Maia, his hardened heart slowly softened at that instant, seeing his son healed him. The thought and nightmare that he had killed his son with his own hands started to fade, and his soul started to heal.
He just stays there immobile, looking at his son being showered with love by his mother.
Leto, standing outside, couldn't help but smile at the spectacle.
The same was true for Athena, Artemis, Apollo, and all the gods who were paying attention to today's event.
They were all relieved, because all of them could feel and see that the oppressive aura around Zeus had receded.
Everyone who was looking saw how Mila, the healer, took out part of her essence to save Hermes; for them it is a fair trade of, after all, Hermes is one of the most powerful gods and the son of their king, plus it successfully appeased Zeus, even the cloudy sky above their head became even clearer.
Outside, the gods were rejoicing.
"Look, he seemed better, calmer,"
"The sky is a little clearer,"
"We are finally getting our king back."
"Thank you, Mila, lord Hermes is safe. Do you think he will be able to fight soon? That war is endless; it has been months since it started, and we are still on the defensive."
"Those monsters of Tartarus reproduce like rats,"
"Poor Mila, she had to use part of her essence to save Hermes; that's not something that she will recover."
"Between that and being charred alive by Zeus, there is no contest."
"I guess,"
Not far away, the other sons of Zeus and members of his faction were standing together, with complicated expressions on their faces, of course, they were very happy to see that their brother was awake, but...
"What about the other one?" Ares asked, his question was like pouring cold water on everyone.
Indeed, having Hermes awake had already appeased their father a lot, but no one could be sure that it would bring the old Zeus back.
"Can't you let us get happy for a few seconds? Everything had been awful for months now," Artemis said
"Yeah, he his right, maybe Zeus will take the opportunity to organize a party, like before," Hercules said
"You think that we have the time for a party, do you know how hard it was to manage and stabilize the situation enough down in the human realm, reunite here like that?" Athena said
Athena scolded. It was true that sometimes they managed to all come back on Olympus, but in truth, most of their time was spent eliminating the hordes of monsters that had taken root all over the world.
"I was just trying to lighten the mood!"
An uncomfortable silence settled between them all.
"He is not wrong; we will all benefit from at least a small celebration. We all need to relax a little."
"Yeah..."
In the hospital ward
Things were finally calming down, emotions were slowly getting under control again, when a sentence of Hermes shattered it.
"Is, is my brother okay?!" he asked tentatively
It made Mila, who was the only healer that stayed in the room, tense up a little, and even Zeus' expression fell a little before he looked toward her.
"Plop," in an instant, Mila fell on one knee in the water
"I apologize, lord Hermes, my king, but we have not yet managed to save the young prince. We have a... few ideas to heal him, please believe in us and give us a little more time,"
"Thank you," Hermes was the first to respond, not noticing anything wrong
"Yes! You will have the time you need... You did well," With that, he turned to his family, not caring about her anymore.
"Thank you." With that, she slowly backed away, leaving them alone.
"Come in," Zeus, aware that they had been observed, said, and immediately all the other members of the family appeared at the door.
As everyone immediately gravitated and fawned over the awake Hermes, they didn't see or care about the resentment that she had for them.
Later that night in Hera's sanctuary.
Hera was seated on her throne, her beautiful, snowy long leg crossed in front of her as she looked at all the healers kneeled in front of her with a smile on her face.
"You did well, Mila. You manage to perfectly implant the orb in him, while making it look like you had sacrificed a piece of yourself to save him. Now, they will be indebted to you. I thought you would refine or something. I'm impressed."
"I only did what I had to do for my Queen. Thank you for your compliment."
"You are welcome, now come closer," she beckoned,
"It's time for me to fuffill my promess," she said, lifting snowy bare foot in front of the goddesses.
Without a word, Adila, the first of the goddesses that had been injured by Zeus' lightning, stepped forward in front of Hera.
She looked at the perfect and unblemished feet of her Queen in front of her with a mix of emotion; her gaze fell on her own injured and scarred hands.
Her hands, her entire body, had been reduced, burned, and scarred. Healing from Zeus' attack would have taken a lot of time, energy, and expertise, something that they couldn't do or they risked angering Zeus further. It was the same for all her other sisters who had been chosen before today.
That goddess, like many other had once been proud of her appearance, but now she was afraid to even look in the mirror, let alone touch Hera's unblemished body.y
"Ex-Excuse me!" she mumbled, hesitating before taking Hera's feet in her hands and planting a kiss on them.
In an instant, she shuddered, feeling a foreign energy make its way in her.
"Hum, ah..." under the scared eyes of her sister Alida, groan for a few seconds, and when it was over.
"It's, I'm fine, cured, the scars have disappeared," she said, looking at her hands, the same hands moved to her face, neck, boobs, and head, where she found hairs. Her previously bald head was once again filled with long brown hair,
"You are back like you were before, it's like you were never injured."
"You're even more beautiful than you were before," Mila and the others commented with a happy smile full of hope and adoration.
"I'm whole again," Alida mumbled. At some point in time, she had grown fearful of her own reflection; now she longed to once again see her face, tears freely fell from her eyes.
"My Queen, my life is yours, my Queen, I will be eternally loyal to you," Alida said as she once again kissed Hera's feet without hesitation.
The moment she did, a little white light appeared between them before settling on the back of Alida's palm,
"It is the symbol of your allegiance to me."
"I will forever cherish it,"
With that, Alida retreated, allowing another scared and injured goddess to kneel in front of Hera's eyes, sparking as she slowly made her own vow before her lips touched Hera's feet.