You find yourself on a mountain side with cold air whipping around you. Clouds cloak the summit, and you shiver, wondering how you will find shelter in this inhospitable location. The fog rolls down the mountain until you are completely surrounded, afraid to move less you stumble and end up tumbling down the mountainside.
You stand there shivering but then you see a light up ahead, like a crackling flame somehow shining through the fog. In spite of your fear, you hazard a step forward and your foot meets with something smooth and square. The fog thins, and instead of a rocky mountainside, you find yourself facing a broad marble stair leading up to a white stone palace.
Uncertain how you have found this wonder, you stagger forward. As you climb the wind dies down and somehow the air grows warmer. The sun shines around you and the sound of water burbling and bubbling greets your ears.
Apple trees with golden fruit and vines dripping with grapes line either side of the staircase, impossible to grow at this altitude, further cementing your understanding that you are no longer on the mountain—or perhaps you are, but the mountain has somehow transformed.
Reaching the top of the stairs, you hear raucous laughter and faint music and decide to follow the sound. You stroll down the open portico, huge marble columns standing to either side and statues watching silently as you pass.
Servants in white tunics hurry past you without a word. They carry great jugs of sloshing wine, platters of meat and fruit, and other delicacies. The smell of decadent food soon wafts around you, and your stomach rumbles.
You reach the end of the portico and a great courtyard with a dancing fountain in the center opens up before you. Beautiful women and muscular men, far taller and fairer than normal folk, dine and drink around a great feast as musicians play and serving boys rush to keep glasses filled.
Above the festivities sits a mighty man with a flowing white beard. Laurel crowns his head and he grasps a staff with a golden eagle on top of it in one hand. His eyes greet yours and he waves you forward.
Unsteady on your feet, you approach. The air crackles around him, and you swear you see sparks flickering in his eyes and hair. The smell of a thunderstorm rises off him, as if he is made of the clouds themselves in spite of his solid appearance.
He beckons to a serving girl who brings you a goblet filled with crimson wine. You thank him and raise it to your lips. It is rich and immediately warms you, chasing the lingering cold from your alpine misadventure from your body.
He smiles. "You are far from where you should be, young one. Here take this." He extends his hand. Lightening crackles and swirls at his fingertips before a dark cloud forms on his palm. He exhales, his might breath pushing away the cloud, revealing a flickering candle.
He passes this to you. "Focus on the flame. It will take you where you need to go."
You obey and the palace swirls around you. Instead you stand on a hill overlooking an azure sea. A village with ships coming into port lies along the shore and a path winds towards it, marking your way.
The candle still flickers in your hand, and you hold it before you as you walk. Wherever you end up next, you'll want a little light.
The Zeus candle is part of Mythologie Candles Spring 2023 seasonal collection.
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