Chapter 67: Hearth (875 BC)

865 BC, Korinthos

(Hestia POV)

Hestia was given an assignment from her brother and king Zeus. The whole worshipping thing was getting to him, and she could tell. It was almost as if he believed it himself, that he’s a god, that he is the king of the sky. The way he was acting as if he was entitled to be worshipped at all times, that the non magicals don’t matter, he even started calling them mortal, as if he wasn’t anymore. As if he was divine.

But Hestia knew better, she had listened to the stories her mother told her and her siblings before she died, of a land of wonders and magic that she came from, when she was barely a century old. Of a clan where everyone was united and strong together, preferring family over everything. A clan that is now full of infighting over insignificant matters. How the Olympia clan of Atlantis has fallen.

These stories were one of the main reasons that she treasures the concept of family so much. She was never interested in the pointless power plays over useless matters even if her family seemed obsessed with them for some reason. Ever since she and her siblings defeated and dethroned their father, her brothers, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus kept fighting for control over the family.

Zeus ended up winning, of course, and Hera married him to become queen as well. But with the non-magical population witnessing their feats, they were worshipped as gods, something Zeus and Hera reveled in. Not that they weren’t considered gods before; during her father’s reign, he took some of the mortals to perform some experiments with them. Hestia’s father, Kronos, was a time elemental. And not just any time elemental, he was the undisputed master of time. He was trying to find a way to travel back in time so that he could see Atlantis one more time. It’s not as if he was trying to save it or anything; he just wanted the knowledge that was destroyed with it.

Kronos was the head of the family, but he seemed quite lax with his responsibility, preferring to spend his time experimenting with well, time. No one knew how old he was, really; with his experiments with time dilation, he had lived for thousands of years. With him not enforcing any punishment to his family members, they took advantage of that by indulging to their most disgusting desires with the mortals. They killed, tortured, assaulted women with no consequences to their actions. They became no better than rabid animals, thinking only of their desires and impulses. This caused the mortals to hold an intense fear of them.

But one day, Kronos heard a prophecy that his offspring will kill him and take his place. He tried to make his wife, Rhea, barren but she would heal instantly from any wound and eventually got pregnant. Hestia was the first to be born, then Demeter, then Hera. After that her brothers were born, first came Hades, then Poseidon and finally Zeus.

Every single one of them, minutes after being born were imprisoned in what they called the dark place, or as it is known today, Tartarus. Kronos, created a small box, containing a dimension filled with horrors and pain. Time had no meaning there; the air was very toxic, and it was only Hestia’s constitution that allowed her to survive. They didn’t need to eat or drink in that hellhole. It was keeping them alive as much as it was slowly killing them. They found a river once, but drinking the water was like drinking acid and they learnt not to do so anymore.

Tartarus was a box, that Kronos always had on hand, hidden somewhere on his person. It was only when Zeus was born, and their mother Rhea created a blood golem to fool her husband into thinking it was another son that they had a chance to be free. It was a subtle thing, but the golem temporarily destabilized the dimension and create a small crack that they could use to escape. It took a lot of time for the crack to widen enough for them to go through but after some patience, they finally escaped.

After joining up with their youngest sibling, they attacked their father and everyone who supported him as head of the family. They attacked with stealth and precision and were able to thin their numbers enough for them to fight, not that they ended up fighting, Zeus just snuck into Kronos’ palace thanks to Rhea’s information and killed their father in his sleep. Zeus was then chosen as the new head of the family.

The rest of the family quickly submitted to them and that should have been it. But Zeus was not happy with the knowledge that some of them called him a coward for not fighting his father directly and he reacted by executing the violent ones and imprisoning the rest in Tartarus. He had found the curse box on their father’s body, he never said where exactly and was skittish when asked.

Zeus hunted and imprisoned every single member of the old regime, also known as the Titans or the silver blooded ones. The members of the family that possessed silver blood were the ones that had survived Atlantis and witnessed is glory. The knowledge was lost and the ones that knew refused to share how they were able to do it. Not that they could find out now; there weren’t any left, which meant they had to settle with their golden blood, or as they call it now, their golden ichor.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

But that wasn’t enough, Zeus destroyed any knowledge of Atlantis and any god born after the titanomachy were ignorant of their origins and believed themselves to be gods. Zeus in celebration of their victory, made a light show as an air elemental and lightning elemental, which was witnessed by some mortals and they though him a god. It was the start of the decline of their family. The worship was getting too much, Poseidon and Hades ended up fighting with Zeus and left, each one creating his own kingdom. Each one trying to one up the other. When Zeus created Olympus, Poseidon responded with Atlantis, an underwater city named after their homeland, and Hades created his Underworld. When Zeus created a giant species of eagles that he called Caucasian Eagles, Poseidon responded with Pegasi, and Hades created the Cerberus. Poseidon and Hades created their own followers like mermen and furies. All this was achieved using Alchemy of course, by combining normal animals and elements. Slowly, the world started to forget about Kronos and his Titans, and new gods replaced the imprisoned and dead predecessors. The Olympian council grew with Zeus’ children, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and Athena.

At this moment, Zeus considers Greece to be his domain, his empire. And back to the subject at hand, Hestia was sent to investigate a city situated between Athens and Sparta. It had grown tremendously in the last five years out of nowhere, rivaling the great cities of the gods in population and luxury. They were led by a woman, their protector, Medusa. A woman of great beauty and immense power that fights and incapacitates any intruder.

It took some time, but Hestia found herself in front of a high solid wall encircling the city, made out of some kind of white stone. It was as if the entire wall was made out of a single stone. The skill of the builder must be very impressive. The walls themselves were very thick and it would take a lot of power for someone to tear it down.

Hestia disguised herself and snuck into the city. The roads looked to be similar to the walls, as in they were made of some kind of smooth white stone that seems to have merged with the others so much that it looks as if it was made with a single stone. Hestia noticed that the houses seemed more solid and structurally sound then the ones in Athens. Every person seemed clean and shaven unlike the normal commoners in the rest of Greece that seems to wash themselves once a month at most.

Hestia walked through a market and watched as the food that was being sold seemed healthier, bigger, juicier. She was something of a culinary expert, herself and she could only admire the quality of the produce sold. She was definitely going to like it here. However, there was no sign of the mysterious Medusa who kept into line all these people.

Suddenly, Hestia heard some yelling and followed the crowd towards the commotion, only to find half a dozen of men assaulting an old woman who was selling peaches and taking the gold she earned that day. Hestia wished she could intervene, killing those men would barely take any effort; as a fire elemental, there were few things that could stand in her way if she was really determined, and had this been anywhere else in Greece, she would have defended to woman and burned the men into ash.

However, in this case, she didn’t want to be found and noticed as an intruder. She hated herself for letting a woman get hurt just to stay hidden, but she didn’t want to be found. Before she could ponder on the issue, a soft feminine voice interrupted the men. It was a woman, but she was definitely not a normal one. She was the most beautiful woman Hestia had ever seen; her skin was as pale as the moon and was so smooth, she could mistake it for porcelain. Her hair was wavy and as dark as the night, creating a contrast with her skin that somehow enhanced her beauty further. But her most exciting feature were her eyes; they were emerald green and they glowed with power. This woman was even more beautiful than even Hera and Aphrodite.

“And what do you think you’re doing?” The mystery woman called out.

The men froze in shock, as if they couldn’t grasp the idea that someone was actually telling them off, before the man that was holding the old woman let go of her. He was obviously their leader. “Why don’t you turn around and go home. Or better yet, stay here. I don’t mind having a pretty little thing like you around.” He grinned lecherously at her.

The woman looked at him with an unreadable expression but then looked underneath her and whispered something to the girls standing next to her. They looked as if they twelve to thirteen years old, but oddly enough, their hair was purple as were their eyes. The girls nodded and the woman walked towards the man who insulted her.

“I am going to ask you to leave that woman alone.” The green eyed woman asked him again.

The bandit sneered at her, “Or what?” He drew his sword and pointed it at her. His underlings did the same, mimicking their leader.

“You will not like the consequence of your actions should you continue,” she responded, unconcerned by the weapons pointed at her.

“Alright, bitch. You asked for this.” The man swung his sword at her, trying to behead her. The woman stayed unconcerned until the blade slowed down the more it approached her neck until it completely stopped inches before her neck. It was then that everyone noticed that the man was turned into stone. Even his clothes and sword turned into stone as well. Hestia had never seen anything like it before. Before she could process what happened, the other bandits, scared shitless from their leader’s untimely end, rushed to attack her as well. Fools, did they not notice how dangerous she is. The woman looked around at them and suddenly, they were turning into stone as well. Seconds later, the woman was surrounded by statues of attacking men, sneering at her. It would be quite humorous if Hestia didn’t know that these used to be real people. The green eyed woman blew a kiss at the statues, and they slowly broke down and turned into dust.

Hestia had a feeling that she had found the mysterious Medusa. She sneakily followed after her.