Week 4 Story: The Summoning of Psyche

Cupid and Psyche.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

It’s time to summon yet another Heroic Spirit. So, let’s get started!

I perform the summoning procedure like usually and what appears before me is-

“Greetings, Master.”

“Hey there boy.”

Two Heroic spirits!? That can’t be. Only one can appear during a summoning, so why are there two! One is a stunningly beautiful woman and the other is young boy with wings.

As I’m standing there in confusion, I hear my instructor mutter, “I never expected something like this would happen.”

Well, standing around isn’t going to solve anything. Let’s see if my new servants? can shed some light on this situation, “Um, hello. May I know your names?”

At this the girl says, “Ah, my apologies. I am assassin class, Psyche, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Master,” And the young boy adds, “I’m Cupid, god of desire and affection.”

I recognize those names from legend. It is said that Psyche was a woman whose beauty rivaled the goddess Venus. Venus was unhappy about this and sent her son, Cupid, to ruin the girl’s life, but instead, they fall in love with each other. The legend goes on to say that after passing many trials, Psyche gained the approval of the gods, granted immortality, and was allowed to formally marry Cupid.

Well that answers that question. But it doesn’t tell me why they were both summoned, and in addition, why Psyche is an assassin?

“That clears up some things, but why are you an assassin Psyche? That doesn’t seem to fit you.” I ask.

Psyche responds with:

“Well, that’s really the only class I fit in. In life, I was nothing more than a human and I had no special abilities or grand heroic achievements. But, I did try to take the life of my husband in his sleep and I also deceived my sisters and led them to their death, which can be considered a form of assassination.”

Ah. That makes sense. Now for the big question, why is Cupid here as well.

So, I ask my instructor, “Instructor how is it possible for Cupid to be summoned. Only one servant should appear. Not to mention that I was taught that gods cannot be summoned because of their divinity.”

Hearing that, my instructor replies with, “You’re correct on both accounts. Gods are classified as divine spirits and cannot be normally summoned do to their immense power. They can only appear under specific circumstances, which are usually self-imposed, or through loopholes. Isn’t that right Cupid?”

Cupid response with, “You are correct. I’m not my own servant but am treated as being the same servant as my darling Psyche. I essentially hijacked the summoning of my darling wife and tagged along. This means I do not possess most of my powers and abilities as a god.”

After hearing this, I reply with, “Now I understand. But why did you want to come along with Psyche? You must have known that you would be severally weakened.”

Cupid smiles and says, “I could not let my sweet wife be summoned by herself. She has no aptitude for battle, so I shall be her bow and arrow,” he said.

Then, with a glare towards me, he adds, “I also must make sure that no lowly human tries to seduce my beautiful wife.”

Upon hearing this, I raise my hands in a surrendering gesture and say, “You can relax on that front. I have no intentions of trying anything with your wife. With that said, let’s all try to get along,” I said with a smile.

Authors notes:

The story setting is the same as my previous stories. I have a brief overview of the original story in the retelling, so I'm not going to go over that. In addition, I didn't make any alterations to the actually original story and instead decided to focus more on the characters. With that said, I wanted to express the connection between Psyche and Cupid, so I had them be summoned together. Furthermore, I wanted to draw attention to the fact that in the original story Psyche was the one responsible for her sisters death. That's why I made her class assassin.

Bibliography. "Cupid and Psyche" by Apuleius and translated by Tony Kline. Web Source.