A week had passed since I organized my fellows into their new assignments.

Ares started enjoying his role as my general once he began recruiting his army. He started with nearly six hundred soldiers and was continually whittling down the numbers as person after person failed to meet his standards. Of course, he had Hercules and Jason and Apollo as his seconds. Phobos, Nike and Bia joined him, as did Eris, just as I knew she would. Even Boreas and Artemis joined my army.

Most former Olympians and Titans wielded weapons in the Golden Age, so picking them up again proved to be no major trial. As Bill said, after visiting Ares’s training camp in the Caucasus mountains where Helios used to house his horses, “They just need to knock the rust off.”

Hermes transported Bill, Helios, Zeus and me to the valley in the Caucasus Mountains. Ares made the house under the hill his headquarters, so that was our destination. He had even painted the front door yellow, borrowing the colors from the Golden Age when my warriors wore yellow and gold. Apparently, they would, again.

The valley looked far less desolate with the addition of rows of tents and practice fields. Grass and weeds sprang up from the dust of my destructive force, promising the valley would return again to its former beauty. The sky was cloudless and brilliant blue in the chilled air. A perfect day for learning the art of war.

“This is the valley you leveled,” Zeus said, looking around. I gave him a stricken look as I remembered the foul deed and he slapped my arm. I slapped him in return and he slapped my arm again. The grin on his face told me he wanted to lighten the memory I had of that day.

Ares bounded up to the house on a sturdy black Friesian stallion that was at least 17 hands. Helios immediately grabbed the reins of the pretty stallion and stroked his nose. “Beautiful animal. What’s his name?” Helios asked.

“Mavros,” Ares said and then to me, “To what do I owe the honor of this visit, my queen? You came to pull a snap inspection? Give us a bit of a spot check?”

“Hardly. I am curious as to how you are faring in your newly acquired role,” I said. “And Memory and Metis made a sumptuous lunch. Care to join us?”

Apparently, Ares did, because he gestured toward the house and said, “I hope you don’t mind that I took over your little place. It is actually a very nice house.”

“Glad you like it,” I said to Ares. “And of course, I don’t mind. I’ve more houses now than I know what to do with.” Ares dismounted and Boreas came out of the barn to take the horse’s reins from Helios. Ares had assigned Boreas the role of Horse Master.

Ares removed his helmet and I noted that his hair was shaved nearly off with only a short stubble remaining, as he had worn it in days past. He hung the helmet on his horse’s saddle and then led us to his house.

In the house, Bill and Hermes made quick work of setting six places at the round table in the dining/kitchen area. The sturdy wooden table was big enough to seat ten people, so we had plenty of room for everyone. They spread sandwiches, fruit, cheese, chips and dip, and a very nice chardonnay. We all chatted amiably about inconsequential things while we ate our lunch, following the age-old habit of not discussing important matters during a meal.

Once the meal was finished, Hermes opened the last bottle of wine and refilled our glasses.

“Now, on to important matters. Ares, how many troops do you have?” I asked.

“I have three hundred twelve that are worth hanging onto. Another seventy-five are striving to impress me,” Ares responded.

“They will have to be ready at a moment’s notice. I cannot depend on Circe to bring the battle here,” I said.

“I expected nothing less,” Ares said.

“How do you plan to defeat her?” Zeus asked Ares.

“I’m training our soldiers in metaphysical weaponry, teaching them to set up a personal ward to protect themselves against Circe turning them into swine, and also to protect themselves against her habit of blowing people apart,” Ares replied. “They are training with swords and armor and guns and kevlar.”

“When will they be ready?” I asked.

“Now, if needs be. The longer we have to train, the more proficient they become. When Circe brings the battle, we will be ready.”

“Good enough. Now Ares, how are you faring?”

“Better than I anticipated, being thrust again into a job I didn't want at all,” he said as he winked at me. “I am sure you can appreciate that sentiment, Athena.” Then, he took a deep breath and said, “I am glad you all came here today because I felt a strong need to be with you all--the only downside I have found being involved in our power partnership.”

“I know. That is one of the reasons we all came,” I said. “The separation of seven days seems to be our limit.” Then, to Zeus, “Dad, we need a few minutes alone.”

He nodded, removed a cigar from his jacket pocket, and left the house. I didn’t want our energy to spill over and inadvertently suck him in. Not unless Zeus desired it.

The five of us stood in a circle and joined hands. I had Helios on my right and Ares on my left, as always. We forged our bond in seconds and communed with each other on that metaphysical level that is impossible to reach individually. We touched each other’s minds, and hearts. We shared deep feelings.

I watched Ares working with my army, teaching them to establish their personal wards and practice with ancient and modern weapons. I watched Helios grooming his horses and feeding them with the same attention he always applies to the task. I watched Bill talking with Themis as they discussed Athenian laws. I watched Hermes contact his spies to gather information and establish new contacts. They watched me binding others to me, metaphysically, and they watched Zeus and me in long discussions about the future.

Through our link, we learned new things and revisited old ones. When we broke apart, all of us were better for the contact. Not only was mental contact necessary, but we had discovered that apparently, physical contact was necessary, too. We hugged each other time and again to strengthen our bond.

Afterward, we sat again at the dining table and chatted about simple things. Helios was interested in Ares’ horse, Hermes was interested in Bill’s knowledge of our laws, Ares was interested in Hermes’s spy network, I was interested in Eli’s health and Ares’s army and they all wanted to know who the newest followers were.

It happened while we sat in blissful harmony. I felt the death of six of my people, but I didn't know who, yet. I just know they died suddenly and violently.

I surged to my feet while shouting, “That witch Circe killed more people.” I felt the six deaths as if she pierced my heart with a spear. I gasped for air and gripped my chest as if I could hold my aching heart together with a fist. Eli responded by putting his arms around me to pull me close and Ares grabbed one hand and Bill the other. Even with this close support, I couldn’t stop the tears or the deep, heart-wrenching sobs. Eli pulled my head to his chest, but all I could feel was my dead followers.

Zeus entered the house as if summoned. “What happened?” He asked, his face a mask of concern.

“Ask her,” Hermes offered. “We aren’t completely certain, yet, other than Circe has struck again.”

Zeus waited until my sobs settled into whimpers of anguish. Around the groans, with a voice ragged from sobs, I said, “Circe just killed six of my people. I don’t know who yet, but I do know where. We have to go. Dad, you will come, too?”

He nodded and I transported us, this time without stirring up the slightest hint of dust. My concern was for my people and not making a perfect landing. Perhaps that has been the key all along--don't overthink.

We landed outside an ancient tavern with a wooden shield over the door proclaiming the place was called, “The Dark Horse Tavern.” A sable horse, rampant and facing the sinister side of the shield with a vert background swung slowly in the breeze.

“We are near Dublin. The six are inside,” Eli said.

I led the way and pulled the door open, slowly. We walked onto a horror movie set, with blood spattered across everything. The tavern was fairly small and dark from age. It appeared to be deserted and as one of the bodies lay behind the bar, I assumed he was the proprietor. Only six tables stood on the dark wood floors and a number of stools for those who wanted to sit at the teak bar. Walls and overhead beams were dark with the smoke of hundreds of years from millions of cigars and cigarettes and the smoke from the fireplace that graced the back wall. The place felt like antiquity.

No living being remained inside. Ares locked the door with a wave of his hand to keep out the curious or a random passerby.

This time, Circe simply dismembered the individuals. Arms, legs, heads, and entrails all remained intact. The unattached body parts somehow seemed more grotesque than blood and tiny bits of flesh strewn about. Then, as we watched, the bodies began assembling themselves, but the configuration was totally wrong. One had a leg where the head should go. One had three arms, one had a head protruding out of the torso.

What I saw was hideousness defined. “What the hell?” I asked as I watched Circe’s idea of humor. At least, I assumed it was humor. I received no answers, not that I expected any. An arm slid across the floor and bumped into my foot. I jumped away as if it were a huge hairy spider.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Then, in a whisper, “Dad, have you ever seen anyone do this?”

The great and powerful Zeus shook his head. “Not ever. This is particularly troubling.”

As body parts skated on the layer of blood, I shuddered, scarcely able to believe what I witnessed. Then, writing appeared on the single window as if a finger had been dipped in blood. As each letter formed, I knew who was responsible.

Αθηνά πρέπει να πεθάνει

It read Athena must die written in Greek.

“She is in here,” Eli said, whispering as if she could hear what he said.

“Can you see her?” I asked.

He shook his head in the negative. A head rolled directly at me and I sidestepped to avoid touching it. Magic hung in the air, heavy as the scent of blood. Then, to add insult, all of the bodies and the blood flew in our direction and I found myself covered in gory stuff, once again.

“Damn you, Circe,” I yelled and I cried, again. Tears washed the blood from my face. The magic left the room and things felt ordinary, again, if standing in an ancient tavern near Dublin while covered in the gruesome remains of six people could be considered ordinary.

I said, “We need to get them all out of here before anyone sees this. I refuse to give her any more media attention.”

“Where should they go?” Hermes asked.

“Olympus where we have placed the others who died, thusly.”

With ease and efficiency, Hermes gathered all of the body parts and the blood and they vanished from my sight. “Let’s get back to the valley,” I said, knowing Hermes could find us.

The bathroom in the house in the valley was small, but the shower stall was large enough for two of us to shower at the same time. The water which came directly from the alpine lake was icy, so I made short work of cleaning off the blood. Eli and I exited the shower just as Bill and Ares appeared in there to wash.

For clothes, I contacted Memory via my sat phone and she transported to us with clean garments. She brought me a pair of bootcut jeans and a cozy red sweater and Eli’s clothes looked much the same. Memory asked no questions, but I know she saw what happened when she looked into my brain. She returned to Olympia after staying only about three minutes.

Hermes returned to the Valley just as Ares and Bill finished showering. Zeus and Hermes went into the shower next.

While we waited for them to complete their shower, it happened again. The impact knocked me to my knees and I wailed in my agony. Losing followers hurt a lot. Pain lanced through my skull and tore at my heart. Again, Eli cradled me and Ares slid his arms around me from behind. They waited until I was able to breathe normally and the sobs subsided.

Zeus came into the room, naked and still dripping from his shower. He knelt in front of me and placed a hand on either side of my face. “Athena. How many?”

“Four,” I said.

“Where?” Zeus asked.

“A long way,” was the only thing I knew for certain.

“Take us there and then you and Eli get out immediately. If she is in the vicinity, she doesn’t need a chance to have a go at either of you,” Zeus said. “Just give me a chance to put on some clothes and we will go.” He and Hermes dressed in jeans and simple tshirts. Zeus pulled on a denim jacket and Hermes’ was brown leather. Zeus’s long hair still dripped water.

They encircled me, did my five companions and I transported us.

Overhead the sun blazed and my sweater was stifling. I pushed the sleeves up, automatically. All it took was a glance. Blood and body parts spread over a campsite in a desert. Already crows arrived at the feast and picked at the larger bits of flesh.

“Australia?” I asked Eli and he nodded. The magic hung heavily in the air, nearly blocking the sun’s rays, but of Circe, there was no sign. Just the oppressive heat and oppressive magic.

“Yes. Wooramel in Western Australia,” Eli added.

Zeus grabbed my arm and said, “Get out of here.” Eli took my hand and immediately, we stood in the chilly air of the house in the Caucasus Valley. “Eli, will they be alright?” I asked. “Zeus, Ares, Hermes, and Bill?”

“Circe will not tilt with Zeus. He will watch over our friends and himself.”

“Eli, that is ten people in an hour. How can she do this?” I knew the question was hypothetical and didn't expect an answer.

I scarcely got the words out of my mouth when it happened again. The room spun and my vision faded in a matter of three seconds. I felt myself falling, but strong arms captured me and eased me to the floor.

I opened my eyes to find Eli’s arms around my shoulders as he lifted my head from the hard dirt floor in the house. I struggled for air, but my lungs seemed like they didn't want to work. Tears sprung into my eyes and I gasped like I was drowning.

“Relax,” he said, over and over. “Just relax and breathe.” That’s what I was trying to do, but what my brain wanted refused to be translated into my body.

After extreme concentration and what seemed like several minutes, I could breathe easier. Eli pulled me to my feet and held onto me while he walked me to a convenient living room chair.

“How many?” He asked me.

I held up eight fingers because I didn’t trust myself to speak. He brought me a glass of water and squatted in front of me. His beautiful face creased with lines of worry. I didn't blame him. I worried about myself, too.

Zeus, Ares, and Bill appeared in the dining area and Zeus rushed to me.

“Again?” He asked and I nodded my answer.

He said, “In Wooramel, all we found were her footprints. She was there, but invisible, again. We saw her walking in the sand.” Zeus paused and then said, “Hermes is cleaning up the mess and will be along in a moment.”

Ares sat on the arm of the chair and stroked my hair with idle fingers. “Where, this time?” He asked.

“Closer. Still to the southeast,” I said. “She killed eight. No one is safe.”

Hermes appeared. Looked at our faces and said, “Oh, no. Not again.”

“Let’s get this over with,” I said and I took us to the place where she destroyed my people.

We landed in Kishangarh near the India/Pakistan border. This time the bodies were in a nomad’s tent and apparently she killed some people who were not my followers because we counted thirteen skulls.

Eli transported me back to the Caucasus, and within a few minutes, Zeus, Ares, and Bill appeared. Hermes was fifteen minutes behind them.

The fourth time knocked me completely unconscious. I awoke on the bed in the bedroom of the Caucasus Valley house. Eli, Ares, and Bill clustered on the bed around me, and Zeus and Hermes sat on the end of the bed.

Cramps gripped my stomach and I vomited my lunch onto Ares. He graciously rose to clean up the mess without making any derogatory comments. Again, I felt like I could not breathe and my tears seemed to get stuck in my throat. Circe was killing me, slowly and horribly, without laying a single finger on me. And my death may mean the death of my power partnership.

After I relearned how to breathe, I stopped wailing and screaming, and I told them, “Fourteen. She is getting closer. They are to the southeast.” I sobbed, again. “I can’t take much more of this. She can’t keep this up, forever, can she? We have to get everyone to safety. We have to contact all of my people and get them to safety.” Hermes brought me a glass of white wine and I downed it in two large gulps. It did little to alleviate my anxiety or my thirst.

Erratic and disjointed thoughts crowded my brain. “She may kill me if she keeps this up. You four have got to protect yourselves. I don’t want to take you with me if I die.”

They looked at each other but didn’t say anything.

Zeus suddenly rose from the bed and said, “She is looking for us. She is trying to find this place. Circe gets a little closer to us each time.” He transported all of us to Olympia without waiting for permission. My power center. I knew she could never breach the wards we had set up here and Dad knew that, too.

Before we could go to the new site of fourteen deaths, she killed nine more people. The impact on me wasn’t as bad because she was much farther away. I only knew it was west of our location. Even though my reaction to her was lessened, in that I didn't lose consciousness, I still hurt terribly. My head, my heart, my lungs, and my stomach took a metaphysical pounding.

We went to the site of fourteen deaths.

We landed near Tepi in Georgia--in the Caucasus and too close to our valley which was actually in Alaina in Russia. This time Eli took Bill and me back to Olympia almost immediately and again, Hermes transported the bodies away. I could tell he weakened with each trip back to Olympus and by extension, so did the rest of us.

Next, we visited the place of the fifth massacre, which was only about seventy-five miles from our valley. That meant the decision to stop going back to our valley was an excellent one.

I gave Ares a command. “Go get your troops. Now, in case she figured out where the valley is.”

Ares transported all of his troops to Olympia to prevent her from killing all of them in one fell swoop. This time Zeus took the nine bodies to Olympus and Helios took Hermes, Bill, and me to Olympia.

Right after Zeus arrived back at Olympus, she did it again. Only one person died, but I felt the death as surely as if it were my own. It happened somewhere in China’s Mongolian desert, so she followed us back to this place.

My head pounded and blood dripped from my nose. Helios called Apollo into the bedroom where I curled on my bed in a classic fetal position. Maybe if I held onto my heart, it wouldn't fly out of my chest. Apollo touched me on my head and shoulder and I felt better in a few minutes. At least I felt good enough to sit up in bed. Plus, my nose stopped dripping blood.

Tears still fell down my face, but I didn’t sob. For some reason, I couldn’t stop their flow. They dripped from my chin and onto my hands.

Zeus asked me, “Do we go get that body?”

I shook my head and immediately regretted it. Pain shot across my head from temple to temple. “No. She is likely tracking us with the same method we used to track her. With all of this bouncing about, she can follow our trail if she is certain it is me she is following.”

“You leave a rather visible trail behind,” Zeus said. “Bright gold and huge. A metaphysically blind person could follow it.”

Hermes added, “Zeus, yours is almost as bright. She may not be able to distinguish the two of you apart.”

“Is there any way to hide that thread?” Bill asked.

Zeus said, “Hermes can make his trail invisible. You would have to find a disturbance in the air itself and I don't know of many who can accomplish that. I know I can’t follow his trail and I have tried many times to see where he goes on his spying missions.”

“Hermes is nearly flat out,” I said. In fact, all of my power partners were nearly drained of energy. We would have to refuel soon.

Apollo said, “I will alert the kitchen to get ready for an onslaught. Athena, you need to rest.”

I agreed with him, in theory.

Then, I was flung into the huge plate glass window by the metaphysical blow that Circe delivered. The window cracked. I felt like I hit it hard enough to break it and sail through. Only two died, but her continual battle took a huge toll on me. My reserves of energy were nearly depleted and I couldn’t protect myself from her. My nose poured blood again and when I vomited (on Bill this time) what came up was laced with bright red blood.

Was this payback for me beating the crap out of Circe when she was my unwitting guest in the Highrise? I barely had time to contemplate the implications when she killed someone else and the backlash caused me to, very thankfully, tumble backward into oblivion.

Forty-five of my people died that day.