Chapter 10: The Wickedness

Psyche showed her sisters all sorts of magnificent riches and made sure they enjoy their luxurious stay.

But when they started mentioning the whereabouts and the identity of her partner, she invented an impromptu story that her lover was a handsome young man whose cheeks were still smooth without a beard and chest still soft but warm with a love for her.

Although Psyche's heart was rejoiced to see her sisters again, she did not in any way disregard her lover's warning. She was anxious as she tried not to betray through a slip of the tongue, so she weighed her sisters down with gold and precious jewels. She then hastily summoned Zephyrus and entrusted them to him for the return journey.

This was carried out at once, and those sisters then made their way home safely. They were now gnawed with the bile of growing envy and repeatedly exchanged loud-voiced complaints.

"How blind and unjust the gods are! Was it their pleasure that we, daughters of the same parents, should endure so different a life? Here we are, her elder sisters, nothing better than servant wives to dull foreign husbands, living like beggar queens, while Psyche, the youngest and last offspring of our mother's womb, has obtained all this wealth?"

"She must have a god for a husband!" the other sister cried. "She has not even a notion of how to enjoy such abundant blessings. Did you notice, sister, the mountain of precious gold and gems lying in her house? The gleaming garments and embroidered silk, the sparkling jewels, the gold and silver beneath our feet and all over the dwelling?"

"I did indeed, my dear," said the eldest sister, nodding vigorously. "If she has as beautiful a man as she claims, no woman living in the whole world is more blessed. Perhaps as their intimacy continues and their love grows stronger, her god-like partner will make her divine too."

"Yes, you might be right, sister," the other one said as she paced around in dissatisfaction. "That's how things are, mark my words; she was putting on such airs and graces! She's now so high and mighty, behaving as if she was a goddess, with those invisible servants serving her needs, and the Winds obeying her commands! Whereas my life is hell, to begin with, I have a husband older than our father, and he's balder than an onion!"

The other took up the grumbling. "I have to put up with a husband crippled and bent with bad joints so that he can succumb to my charms only once in a blue moon. I spent almost all my day rubbing his limbs, which are twisted and hard as wood."

"We're slaving nurses, not royal wives."

"Poor you and me together," the older sister sighed mournfully. "Ever since Psyche was born, no one paid us any mind, even our parents hardly held any lavish feast in our honor. It'd always been for Psyche, the most beautiful of all maidens!"

"Surely your memories are true and her insulting way has needled both our hearts, dear sister," the other replied with equal envy. "I just recall how disdainfully and haughtily she treated her two caring sisters, how swollen-headed she'd become with her boasting and her immodest display of fortune, how she reluctantly threw at us a few trinkets from that mass of treasure, and then at once ordered us to be thrown out, whisked away, sent off with the wind because she found our presence tedious!"

As they complained, their irrational anger grew and formed inevitable hatred, and the two older siblings began to believe themselves more worthy of such happiness and abundance than their youngest sister.

"We must work out an effective plan," said the eldest sister. "We must not show the gifts she gave us to our parents or anyone else. We must not even announce that she's alive and well."

The younger one leaned closer to listen.

"What is your plan?" she asked. "I'm willing to follow as long as I can punish Psyche's arrogance and bring justice to us."

"Well, let us wait and give the matter deeper thought, we must go back to her palace and be more determined to see her lover."

Then the two wicked sisters approved this evil theme. So they hid away all those most valuable gifts. They tore their hair, gave their cheeks the scratching they deserved, and feigned renewed grief. They hastily summoned tears and depressed their parents, reawakening their sorrow to match that of their daughters, and then swollen with lunatic greed and rage, the two plotted their wicked wiles against their faultless sister.

But this treacherous plan did not go unheard. Cupid, the winged goddess of all love affairs, returned to their bed-chamber and in their nightly whispers, she again counseled Psyche.

"Are you aware of what danger overhangs you, Psyche mine?" the goddess said with great pity.

"What danger, my love?" the maiden asked in alarm. She stared at the goddess with dread in her eyes. Her face, divine and brilliant, did not fail to soften Cupid's heart. The goddess refrained herself from revealing the secret of the two traitorous sisters of hers, who were straining every nerve to lay wicked traps for her wife.

"Just bear in mind that if your sisters are seeking to persuade you to pry into my identity, if they turn up later ready with their words and tongues to reel your trust of me, you are not to listen to or speak of your darling mate to them, not even when your native innocence and soft-heartedness might urge you to," the goddess advised solemnly. "As I have often warned you before, this is for your own good, if you don't follow my words, a single glimpse of me will be your last."

"Oh my love, I will never do such a thing!" Psyche replied vehemently. "You have granted me the blessing of my sisters' embraces. You shall have proof of my loyalty. I no longer seek to see your face, the very darkness of the night is no longer oppressive to me for you are the light to which I cling with pleasure. You can rest assured."

Cupid was bewitched with her wife's sincere words and gentle embraces. She wiped away Psyche's tears with her golden hand and kissed her forehead to let the maiden know that she trusted her so.

"Very well, my beautiful girl," she said. "To reward you for your devotion and trustworthiness, I shall let you know a few secrets of me."

"Really? What is it, love?"

Cupid brushed a golden strand from her wife's lovely face.

"If you conceal our secret in perfect silence, soon we shall be starting a family," Cupid said with a smile even her wife couldn't see.

"A family?" Psyche gasped.

"Yes, my love," Cupid said and let out a musical laugh. "For this as yet tiny womb of yours will be carrying for us a child much like yourself."

The goddess had been entertaining the notion for a long while. If Jupiter bore Bacchus and Minerva all by himself and Juno did the same with Vulcan, why couldn't she, a powerful immortal herself, do the same? After all, her own mother, Venus, was also self-born!

Psyche was immediately aglow with delight, and they gloried in the comforting prospect of having a child together.

Cupid exulted in the fame that a divine offspring of her own would bring her. The goddess rejoiced at the thought of the respected status in Olympus, for not all gods could create another being on their own. But Cupid was a confident goddess and believed that her power would not fail her.

After all, it was Cupid alone, who caused love to bloom and life to spring.