Chapter 69: Monsters (862 BC)
862 BC, Korinthos
(Medusa POV)
It’s been three years since Hestia arrived at my city and she became an indispensable part of mine and my daughter’s lives. She is the kindest person that I’ve ever met, and the girls adore her. Plus, her cooking is to die for, the girls definitely love it and I have to admit that she spoils us sometimes.
It was very hard to not fall in love with her. She was just too kind, too wholesome. I try to avoid using memories of the future to judge people but tales of this woman’s benevolence, if anything, have been watered down. She is a good-natured, gentle, and understanding woman who never says a bad word about anyone. She didn’t even complain about her siblings, and I know there’re horrible people from the stories I heard, killing people for no reason, taking offense at the slightest provocation, and committed massacres because they were bored.
Her brothers were far worse than her sisters; Zeus destroyed cities by blasting lightning at them, Poseidon caused earthquakes and flooded cities, killing thousands. Hades killed people so that he could turn them to necromantic constructs. The entire clan was pitted against each other, always fighting for a shred of power, in a vain hope to ascending to the council and officially become an Olympian. Not that they had any chance; Zeus rigged the entire thing so that the council is filled with his children to maximize his influence. This disgusted me to the core. Clans in Atlantis were more than just a name. The clan heads protected the family and in turn every member supports the clan head. Should the clan head fail in his duties, he would be forced to step down and another one was voted in. The relationship between the head and members was symbiotic, everyone benefiting and held accountable to their actions.
Whatever Olympus was now, it definitely wasn’t a clan anymore. It’s a perversion of our traditions and our customs and it disgusts me that these were all that remained of my people. That I fought Death itself to protect them. What a disgrace.
Thankfully, Hestia wasn’t like them; she was very humble. She was the only member of the Olympia clan that acknowledges that she actually wasn’t a goddess. She was one of the few remaining members of the clan that remembers her origins and the rest were intimidated into silence by Zeus. The man even forced every member of the clan to teach their children that they’re actually real gods. That was the most damaging thing, to be honest. Younglings assumed that what they were taught was true and that they would get reformed should they die. And as resilient their bodies are and as powerful as their healing factor was, getting killed is still a strong possibility if they’re acting rashly, which they are.
The children grow entitled, which makes sense since they think that they’re gods and that they’re superior to all other races. Which explains why most of the clan are insufferable right now. And when the children discover their elemental affinity, they call it their domain and assume that they have absolute dominion over it, which is ridiculous. Artemis, Zeus’ daughter, had an elemental affinity of moonlight. It was rare but for her to believe that she was the goddess of the moon is absolutely ridiculous. And it’s not a unique situation either; her twin Apollo, a light elemental, thinks that he’s the god of the sun.
Now back to Hestia, we started to officially court two years ago, and it was the best time of my life. I taught her Atlantis’ customs, told her how things were back then and described as best I could how everything worked. She told me stories of her youth, her time in Tartarus, how much she wishes that her family would just get along. We got on very well and had a lot in common. We both endured suffering, me at the Dursley’s hands and her in the pit, we both got over it, cherished whatever family we could have and became better people afterwards.
After Atlantis fell, I felt like I was alone. I travelled, met people but they would always die, in the end, and I would remain alone. I spent so much time by myself that I forgot what it was like to have someone in my life. So, when I found someone like me, that understands loneliness and the value of human life, that would live as long as me, I held onto her as much as I could as a lifeline. She was my chance at happiness. So, I fell for her, and I fell hard, and she did the same for me.
I was very inexperienced with relationships, not that Hestia was any better. This was the first relationship for the both of us. Hestia refused to enter a relationship with anyone capable of the cruelty that her family exhibits and I never entered a relationship in Atlantis, since there was no one my age in that place. Everyone was at least half a dozen centuries older or younger than me and that age gap for someone as young as I was too much.
After Atlantis fell, I was alone and I couldn’t very well court someone that will die in the blink of an eye, so I stayed away from that path, fearing further heartbreak. But now, Hestia was with me, and she represented for me a slim chance at happiness. Truth be told, the last few years with her were the best in centuries. For the first time, I felt at home.
Right now, I was sitting on a chair at the beach, looking at the sea. My two daughters were having fun swimming and Hestia was sitting on another chair next to me. We did this at least once a month, as if trying to recreate the first time we ever met each other.
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We sat there, in a comfortable silence. It was something I loved about our time together; there was no need to talk, to fill an awkward silence. We could just enjoy each other’s presence in peace. This peace was of course interrupted by my beloved’s voice, “There’s something I have been meaning to talk to you about.”
I raise an eyebrow, “what do you mean?”
“It’s about the girls. A lot of boys wanted to court them, and they’re interested. They wanted to ask your permission to do so.”
I immediately jolt up, “Absolutely not. They’re too young for any of that stuff.”
Hestia calmly answers, “No they aren’t, and you know it. They’re almost eighteen years old now, and they’re very attractive girls, of course boys would be interested. The other girls her age started courting years ago, it’s time to let them go.”
“But they’re my girls…”
Hestia interrupts me, “you told me that you wanted to raise them like normal girls their age. Falling in love and getting married is a normal part of life.”
I sigh, “I just don’t want them to get hurt.”
“I know, love. But this is for the best, for you and for them. You are unreasonably protective of them…”
I prepare to retort to the unreasonable accusation, but the wards warned me that something was attacking the walls. Thankfully, they haven’t breached it yet.
“There’s something attacking the city,” I exclaim, “We have to go…”
“Fine,” she sighs, “But this conversation is not over.”
I grab Hestia’s hand and teleport us towards the walls. What we found was baffling. The wall was being attacked by a hybrid of a man and a bull, that I recognized as the minotaur. Similarly, we were also attacked by some sort of creature that had the head of a lion, the body of a goat and a large diamondback snake-headed tail. This was a chimera. Both these creatures were in Greek mythology, but I never heard of them in this time. I had just assumed that they were made up later on, considering how inaccurate the legends are.
Suddenly, we heard a roar, and a dozen giant humanoid creatures marched towards the walls, clubs in hand. It took me a few seconds to notice that they had only one eyes on their foreheads. These were cyclopes. How the hell, did I just meet three previously unseen mythical magical species, native to Greece. Magical creatures aren’t usually that concentrated and diverse in the same environment and Greece seems like a hub of weird different creatures. This was odd, they were definitely not naturally created, I’ll have to investigate that later. Before leaping to conclusion, I ask Hestia, “Have you ever seen or heard of creatures like that before?”
She shook her head and I continue, “Alright, let’s just kill them but capture a few to interrogate.”
She nods, looking resigned. I knew that she didn’t like fighting and I would never make her do it, but she took it upon herself to help me protect my city.
Hestia jumped in front of the attackers, “You shall not pass. Leave and you may live, stay and forfeit your lives.” She exclaimed.
I chuckle in my head at her inadvertent reference. The creatures in front of them did not share my humor and just proceeded to attack her. The Chimera breathed fire at her, and she redirected it towards the charging minotaur and cyclopes. The one eyed giants shrugged off the fire and kept charging, so they were immune to fire somehow? The minotaur was not that lucky and proceeded to scream in agony at the burns. I teleported next to Hestia and conjured a sword that I used to behead the chimera’s snake tails and stab the weeping minotaur in the chest. Jumping over it, I conjure a dozen of steel spikes and telekinetically banish them towards the lone eye of every cyclops killing all but two of them that managed to hide behind their comrades.
The chimera, that was roaring in pain, breathed fire all around it but Hestia once again controlled the fire and pushed it towards the beast’s maw, burning it from the inside causing its demise. With every attacker dead, except for the two cyclopes remaining, I turn one of them to stone and restrain the other to interrogate it. I enter its mind to only find an animalistic mind. The cyclops had no ambitions, no desires and lived through instinct alone. And that instinct was to kill everything in front of them or die trying. The mind was odd though. Even animals were more developed than this; cyclops had no desire to eat, drink or any sense of self preservation. It could not understand the concept of allies, which meant that they couldn’t have consciously attacked the city. Something was controlling them somehow. And considering that the beasts were artificially made, this meant that someone was creating creatures and using them as weapons.
Whatever was controlling them must have noticed that I have captured them, and the surviving cyclops started to tremble and spasm before relaxing, dead.
I look at Hestia, “Who among your family is able to create creatures using alchemy?”
“The things were not natural?” she exclaimed.
I nod, “Someone has been making them and using them as weapons.”
Hestia paled and then responded, “It’s not something that was taught, really. Zeus tried to ban anything from before his crowning and this was definitely banned. So, only people old enough that could even remember that it was possible could make them. Even then, during my father’s reign, only the high-class Titans were allowed to access that knowledge and the members of the Olympian council too, I guess. Poseidon did create mermen using alchemy and I know that Hades and Zeus have created creatures of their own.”
I nod and levitate the body. This was a lead and I need to pursue it. I levitate the body of the last cyclops. The perpetrator made a mistake by proving to me that they did witness what was happening. They must have been using mind magic since they couldn’t use scrying because of my wards. Magic always leaves a trace and I look for any type of psionic magical signature and find one leading to Italy, to a mountain in the Alps to be specific. I was not just a mountain but a volcano, it was magical in nature somehow and it prevented me from being able to see further.
I knew that I had to investigate this, it was a feeling in my gut that if I don’t, I would regret it. I look towards by beloved and asked with a smirk on my face, “Are you ready to go a trip?”