FICTION: Vulcan's Vengeance

“Son, if you ever raise your hand against a woman, you better prepare for the full weight of a man’s wrath. Because whoever she is, wherever she is…She’s got a Daddy.” – My Father.

“And if he’s not around any more, she will one day find away to avenger herself upon you….in his name!” –– Addendum by Me.


Prolog: The Fall of Vulcan.

Juno, being horrified of the child’s appearance, cast it off the precipice of Olympus. The child fell for a day and a night until it thundered through the earth’s atmosphere and collided with the great ocean. The fall shattered the infants leg and left it lame. Thetis, the sea nymph found the child and took him to her underwater lair. She raised him as her own, teaching him, nurturing him and helping him to become a great man. And as a man, Vulcan fell in love with Venus. Together they had several sons, and a daughter. The boys were raised in the ways of fire and steel. Taught at the forge by the master craftsman that was their father. The girl however, Sernius, longed to be taught those ways as well. Her mother frowned on the idea, and Vulcan capitulated to keep his wife happy. To her knowledge.

Unknown to Venus however, he taught Serinus secretly the ways of the forge and how to make and wield weapons.

And so the day came that she learned of his origins and Juno’s cruel disgust that left her father lame. Her father, her dearest love and devotion, was abandoned by his true mother.

Her grandmother. A goddess. A being of immortal blood and power.

Of which she possessed the same.

The fires of Mt. Etna rumbled and boiled in her blood. For one day she would use the talents her father had taught her to avenge him. On that day, Juno, would learn what a woman’s wrath could do.

And so the day came, she suited herself in armor she had created from the very roots of the volcano they called home.

She hefted the spear in her right hand, and brandished her shield with her left. Her helm glinted against the blood red sunset as she began her climb.

The ascent to Olympus. To confront her grandmother.


Juno slept in her chamber on Olympus. Peacefully unaware of the vengeance which stalked its way to her abode. Jupiter, her husband and Serinus’ grandfather, was away on one of his nightly escapes to the mortal world below.

A swift strike here would end thousands of years of torment for Serinus, and bring vengeance for her crippled father. Vengeance which she believed was important to calm his spirit and grant him peace in his life away from Olympus.

The climb was long, a full day and a night she ascended. Her anger fuming behind her eyes. She would make Juno pay for the monster she was.

As she crested the summit, there stood Olympus in all it’s glory. Shining, beautiful, elegant in every detail. She was so awestruck that she did not notice her presence was detected.

Jupiter had returned to find her standing at the gates. Armed for battle. His question was swift and full of demand.

“WHO ART THOU TO TREAD UPON THIS HALLOWED GROUND. YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR INSOLENCE MORTAL.”

Serinus grinned to herself. “I am no mortal, Mighty Jupiter. I am Serinus. Daughter of Vulcan and your granddaughter. I have come to confront my grandmother for the grievous wounds she has inflicted on my father.”

Mighty Jupiter crossed his arms across his broad chest. A laugh which shook the oceans bellowed forth and he spoke with all the fury of a hurricane.

“THOU DOST THINK THAT YOU CAN INTRUDE UPON MINE HOME? AND SO ARMED AS TO DO BATTLE WITH MY BELOVED JUNO? I SHALL TEACH YOU WHAT IT MEANS TO FEAR THE POWER OF OLYMPUS!”

The thunderbolt slammed into the ground in front of her, spinning her wildly like a child’s toy and shattering her shield and spear. Her helm, slipped from her head and exposed her features. An unmistakable resemblance gave Jupiter pause. As he raised his hand to hurl another bolt, a voice caught his ear over his shoulder.

“Husband, wilt though destroy your own flesh and blood? I beg you, stay thine hand and allow me to speak with this warrior.”

Juno drifted on air past her husband and in settled to the ground in front of her granddaughter.

“Tell me little one. Why dost though seek to destroy me?”

Serinus’ eyes welled with tears and she spoke softly.

“You sought to destroy my father. When he was but an infant. You cast your son to The Fates and he forever lives in shame in the mortal world. Instead of here where he belongs. You are an abomination and I claim my right as his daughter to seek vengeance in his name.”

Juno, waved a dismissive hand. “Go back to the mortal world, child. You know not of that which you speak. No vengeance may be taken upon me by any hand. Not by mortal, immortal or otherwise.

A tear rolled down Serinus’s cheek as she struggled to her feet. She picked up the broken haft of her spear and drew her arm back.

“I never said I would use my hand!”

As she attempted to hurl the spear, she was struck. Full force in the chest by a lightning bolt. Her lifeless body hurtled towards the very edge of the summit and came to rest like a marionette who’s strings had been cut.

Cruel Jupiter approached, a dark fire behind his eyes.

He called for his messenger, Mercury.

The winged god came as his master bid.

“Take this girl back to Etna. See to it her father receives her body. It will be set to stone so that he may always look upon her last moments and despair that he had attempted to teach his daughter of the ways of war.”

As Mercury knelt to collect the body, it hardened into stone. He cradled her lifeless form in his arms and bowed to his master. “Yes Mighty Jupiter. It shall be as you wish.”

Jupiter turned and faded away into the darkening shadows of the Olympian night.

As the winged messenger began to move to descend to the mortal world. A hand rested on his shoulder.

Juno, in the last moments took pity upon the young girl and whispered to Mercury.

“You will deliver her as my husband has said. However she will not remain this way forever. I will leave it to The Fates to decided how she will return. But she will have her vengeance, for if she was nothing else, she was brave to have stood against the Master of Olympus in his own home.

Nodding, Mercury moved off. “It will be as you command, my Queen.”


When he reached the foot of Mt. Etna. The morning light was streaming over the caldera. Lame, Vulcan stood supporting himself upon a stone as the child’s frozen form was laid at his feet.

“Vulcan. Jupiter has bid me to return your daughter. She stood against him in battle, in your stead, to avenge the wrong that was done to you by your mother.”

Tears ran in smoldering rivers down Vulcan’s cheeks as he picked up the lifeless form of his beloved daughter.

“Know this, however, that Juno has decreed your daughter shall rise again to avenge you. The Fates, will decided the manner in which it will happen. She has been merciful.”

And with that, the winged messenger ascend to the peak of Olympus.

Vulcan, left with the knowledge that his daughter would return. Entombed her in a vault, deep within Etna herself. He forged a massive lock that could only be opened by him with a key he crafted from black obsidian.

This key he kept around his neck, it is said, until he faded from the very pages of history. With the rest of the pantheon.

Chapter 1: Origins.

“…..and so it is with great pleasure that I introduce, Dr. Alexandria Stonevault. Oathborne Enterprises’ top authority of the Vulcan’s Vengeance project.”

Smattered applause drifted off the high ceiling of the amphitheater. The white hot lights on the stage created a fuzzy halo around the slim, auburn haired woman who took the podium from the announcer.

“Thank you.” she said into a static laden microphone. “I’m very pleased to be here to discuss the latest find on our project. I know that many of you have been wondering why we are behind schedule.”

A few coughs and sniffles resounded from various corners of the room.

“I believe these slides will illustrate why we have had to slow our progress.”

On the view screen behind her, a computer enhanced line drawing showing the outline of the Etna caldera backlighted her form.

A rectangular object in the center was highlight a different color and words hung in space over the shape which read: “Unexplained stone chamber”

“We have found what appears to be a chamber, or stone repository, inside the caldera of the volcano. Our drilling rigs encountered it 3 days ago. I have placed the project on hold until it can be identified. Once we investigate it, it can be removed and the drilling can continue.”

“What is it?” came a call from somewhere in the back. The few scientists assembled turned to find the origin of the question, but the bright lights of the stage area render the deeper depths of the room, pitch black.

Alex raised her hand to shield her eyes, “I’m not sure yet. A tomb most likely. We aren’t exactly sure though who would have been buried in this area. Studies so far indicate that it would be extremely hard, quite possibly fatal, to attempt to build such a structure at this depth in the mountain. The delving alone could kill hundreds of the workers if a lava vent should be pierced in the process. Whomever built it, knew exactly where to dig. And how.”

The slide projector turned off returning the lighting to an acceptable level.

“Any further questions?”

The silence in the room seemed to echo Alex’s mood. She hated “speaking” in front of her colleagues. She was sure they probably viewed her as crazy, or inept or both.


Whatever they thought of her, she was sure that once they opened the stone crypt, her name would be instantly on more journals and periodicals than the entire room’s publishing history combined.


… to be continued.

Tease.