by Skyler Grant
We seemed safe at least, the dimly lit room warm and comfortable.
"Where are we?" I asked her in a voice raw and rough.
"We made it to the oil rig. The locals are interesting, but friendly. You'll probably find them a little too friendly. Ismene is a hell of a doctor. How are you feeling?"
Exhausted. Sometimes when I pushed myself too hard and was back on my feet, I could feel like I could walk a thousand miles or punch my way through an army. Right now I just felt tired and run down. This wound had taken far too much out of me.
"Vengeful," I said anyway.
Inanna grunted. "Me too. Think it was SantaFe?"
I wasn't sure. They had a grudge with me and they might have decided to pay it back, but we knew the Collective was interested in what we'd taken from the facility. Perhaps they weren't alone and someone else had made an offer to the member of our team most likely to have a price.
"We'll find out," I said, sitting up. "Where are the others?"
"Sparks is being neighborly by helping our hosts to fix an algae tank. Masque is being neighborly by sleeping with lots of people. Hammer is standing watch," Inanna said.
"I'm busy playing doctor and Inanna was helping," Ismene said over my Comm. "You're going to be fine, but he almost took your head off. He was really trying to kill you."
Of course he was. Billy knew that if he didn't betray me properly it would come back to haunt him.
"Do we have a way off wherever the hell we are?" I asked.
"They've got a boat. We're waiting for it. We all needed a rest anyways and whatever else our hosts might be, they are friendly," Inanna said, wryly.
"She doesn't like them," Ismene said.
"I'm picking up on that," I said.
"They're weird," Inanna said.
"Go ahead and tell her why. I know you want to," Ismene said.
"They call themselves the cult of the infinite skein. They worship every god there ever was and every one there will ever be. Sort of," Inanna said.
"Sort of?" I asked.
"You'll see. You're one to them. I'm one to them. They take the Persephone and Inanna thing a little far."
I'd intentionally created for myself something of a reputation building upon the role of Persephone as a Goddess. I knew a few people out there probably believed it, there were always a few, but I'd never actually met any willing to do so.
It might bother Inanna, but I had to admit, I was kind of into the idea.
I'd had a rough time of it lately. Horrible deaths, terrible violence, general mental trauma of every stripe and variety. I could go for a little bit of idolatry.
"She's totally into it," Ismene said, far too cheerful.
"Stop sharing my private thoughts," I said.
"Well, I wouldn't if they weren't so funny," Ismene said.
Inanna rolled her eyes. "I'm not going out there. If you want to go and be worshiped, be my guest. That kind of thing gets old really quick."
Maybe it would, but for now I could use the change from being shot.
25
I stepped out of the door and into a hall beyond. There were a mix of men and women in robes who smiled warmly at me as I passed, although none greeted me. I picked a direction at random and started walking.
I passed a room filled with cushions and rather more bare flesh than I might have expected. It seemed an orgy was well underway and I spotted Masque among the participants. Inanna hadn't been kidding. It was a shame I still felt like a woman recently shot in the throat.
"Going in?" asked a voice from behind me. The speaker was a handsome man of about my age, his robes had a green tint to them and he wore a smart visor over one eye.
"I don't think I'm quite up for that, unfortunately," I said.
He chuckled and tilted his head. "We are just happy to have you still among us at all. The world is always sadder for the passing of a Goddess. My name is Tobias, I am your head priest for your visit."
Those were a strange combination of words when put together. "Whose head priest are you when I leave?"
Tobias laughed. "Whoever has need of one. The needs of our community change often. If you are not going in, perhaps you would walk with me? Some fresh air might help you wake up."
It might at that. We climbed a rickety flight of stairs and he pushed open a hatch. It was daylight outside, sullen gray clouds hovering over still water. The air was brisk against my face, although my armor made sure that my core was kept at a comfortable temperature.
"So you change who you worship depending on what the people need?" I asked.
"Not at all. Our worship is universal and never falters. Still, not all voices always need to be heard and it is my job to figure out those that do," Tobias said.
"And right now you think mine does?"
"Or perhaps you need to hear ours. It is much the same isn't it? Communication is never one-sided."
I'd think with Gods and Goddesses it usually would be. Of course, if they made a habit of picking ones like me, maybe they did get to have some sort of dialog.
"Thank you for being so hospitable to us," I said.
"Refusing hospitality to strangers is rarely a good idea. Worse yet to turn away the Gods at your door," Tobias said.
"Do you get many? Gods dropping by?"
Tobias took my arm and guided me to a bench looking out over the waves. He took a seat and I sat beside him. It was nice, although the surroundings didn't get any less bleak. The fresh air did have something going for it.
"The divine is always moving throughout the world. Choosing vessels and spreading messages. You are not the first we've hosted and you will not be the last."
"Tell me about the others?" I asked.
It may seem strange that I was asking. Here I was eager to see about being worshiped and I was asking about other divinities. It was a bit like going on a date and asking about someone’s ex-lover.
"We have hosted Freya on many occasions and she is always welcome here. Mot, too, we see more than most. This is the first time we have played host to Persephone and Inanna, but know that you will always be welcome," Tobias said. There was something strangely formal to his words, sincere.
It made me feel like a pretender.
Tobias flashed me a smile and shook his head. "I know what you think. You think you are a pretender of a Goddess, yes? Not real. A role you play for the crowds on the Network and nothing more."
I didn't know he even knew about my Network role. The fact that even now I was streaming meant I should be careful what I said.
"I think it is more complicated than that," I said.
Tobias gave me an approving nod. "It always is. For you more than most, I think? Falling from the sky. Being of two aspects. What did it feel like? Your fall?"
"I was being burned alive and watching everyone I ever knew and loved die as I did so. I lack the words to describe how terrible it was," I said.
That was more honest than I meant to be.
"And when you came back to life?"
"Glorious," I said. "You're filled with questions."
"I am trying to understand you," Tobias said, looking me in the eyes. His were a deep mahogany. "Your balance is off and I seek to understand why."
"My balance?"
Tobias chuckled. "Must I explain yourself to you? You are Persephone, the bringer of spring and a Goddess of life. Yet, you have devoted yourself to death."
"In this aspect—" I started to say and Tobias shook his head.
"No, not just in this aspect. You are always dying or you are always killing. You give death and you receive it, and it has become the whole of you," Tobias said.
That had an uncomfortable ring of truth to it.
"You're awfully judgmental for my priest," I said.
"Did you expect me to grovel at your feet and offer you endless praise?" Tobias asked and shrugged. "We have a working relationship with our gods. Our talks go both ways and we are here as much to guide as it is to be led. And I tell you my G
oddess, as one who loves and worships you, that you have lost your way."
It was such a strange conversation and yet still there remained something painfully sincere about it all.
I couldn't help but think of what Aphrodite had forced Ismene to tell me. That I had drifted so far from being human I was now effectively infertile. Very little about me spoke to life now, except for the stubbornness with which I clung to it.
"I don't know how to change that," I said.
"You simply try," Tobias said. It was such an absurd answer I had to laugh.
"Perhaps so. I'm not one to let anything stop me," I said.
"Remember who you are. Remember what you are. The role forced upon and the role chosen by you. You will bring death, yes, always. But more should live because of you, than die because of you," Tobias said.
I liked to think that the scales were closer than he let on. When I'd shut down Green's boxing facility I really had saved over a thousand lives from a lifetime of torture and abuse. I'd made plenty of corpses to do it, but those I didn't regret, not a single one.
Ever since then, I'd been dropping a lot of bodies I didn't feel as good about. Things with SantaFe had just kept escalating—like those Olympians back on the island. The corpse count just kept growing and lately there wasn't anyone being saved on the other side of that ledger.
I hadn't even managed to save Venom, for all that I had at least tried.
"You ask a difficult thing, but you have my word. I'll try," I said.
"Then you will succeed, for you are not a woman to be denied," Tobias said.
"I don't suppose you know anything about Aphrodite?"
"I know that she is almost as fair as yourself," Tobias said.
That was flattering. Untrue, but flattering.
Tobias must have read that in my expression because he reached out for my hand. "Truly. I am biased, being your priest, but there is something dark in Aphrodite. While she can be a powerful friend, you should never underestimate her."
That wasn't going to be a problem. Given all the capabilities that she had shown I didn't think it would be a problem.
I still didn't know if Tobias really had any insights about her, but it hurt nothing to ask.
"Aphrodite has this ability to force me to do what she says," I said.
"Persuasion suits her," Tobias said.
"Persuasion might. Coercion I could do without."
"Then stop her. You already know how others can see through your eyes, move on your behalf," Tobias said.
I did. It hadn't even made sense to me until now, because I wouldn't have thought it could have happened without Ismene being aware.
"I would have been. I would have. I don't remember her accessing your nanites or taking muscular control at all," Ismene said.
"We know she managed to hack the Collective."
"Which means she can probably hack me. You're right. Your crazy priest is right. Let me see what I can do."
"Is there anything you even can do?"
"I think there is. No guarantees, but I'll see what I can do. I don't want her to have control of us. We aren't anybody’s puppets."
"Thank you. That was helpful," I said.
If I could take away that ability of Aphrodite's I might finally have a way to force a confrontation with her. I still wasn't sure if she was enemy or foe, but I was getting tired of being led around from one task to another.
26
That night I awoke to find myself in a grayish cubicle. I recognized the surroundings at once as an unspecific Network environment. Thatr I was wearing vines and flowers would have confirmed that anyways.
After a few moments Ismene flickered into view in her full nymph look.
"Is there any reason you're waking me up to throw me into the most boring Network environment ever?" I asked.
Ismene shot me a wry look. "We're not really in the Network. I'm hosting a local network connection here and still feeding a sleep signal from you to the world out there."
We were invisible to my feed for once. That was nice, I was beginning to value any little bit of privacy I could get.
"I like it, but that still isn't an answer," I said.
"I know. Give me a few moments, I'm trying to make the connection."
There was a flicker in the surroundings and suddenly they were replaced by the baths of Olympus. I was lounging in a pool of steaming water and I wasn't alone.
I didn't recognize the man and woman with me, not at once. They looked to be twice my age and fit-looking, the woman more than the man. Olympian physiology clearly, and of my generation. Or at least, what my generation had been when I last saw Olympus.
It didn't take me that long for realization to dawn. I'd been expecting, hoping, for at least one of these two to contact me. Orestes and Rhea were friends. I'd been with them when the attack on Olympus station began. Both should have died in the fall, but then I'd gotten that mysterious message some time after that had suggested Orestes at least remained alive.
I was lost from any further pondering as Rhea pushed herself over to draw me into a tight hug. That was unexpected. Orestes gave me an apologetic look.
"I'm so happy you survived," Rhea said.
"She's wanted to do that ever since we heard," Orestes said.
I shot a glance over to Ismene, hoping for some explanation.
"We are on a well-secured feed. We're on a completely Network-independent version of me to make this happen," Ismene said.
" I know what must be your first question. Do we exist at all or are we just Aphrodite playing with your head?" Orestes said.
That was exactly what I was thinking. Unfortunately, I didn't think anything would prove they weren't. Not only was Aphrodite able to hack my sensory feeds, but she could probably gain access to my memories and those of Ismene as well.
"It had occurred to me. It was followed quickly by the thought that there isn't much you can do to prove it," I said. "It's good to see you, too. I thought I was all alone. How are you alive?"
Rhea gave me another squeeze and pulled back. "We're not easy to kill either."
"Your family had an escape plan. We tried to get to you, but you were busy playing hero," Orestes said.
I had been. I'd died playing hero, for all the good it had done.
"We're not really here to talk about that. We're tight on time. We can only hide this connection for so long," Rhea said.
"I don't think it matters how well you hide it. I'm still going to remember it and I'm compromised," I said.
"Lethe," Ismene said. It was all she needed to say. The bioweapon that wasn't really a bioweapon and it was designed to erase memories.
"You must need information from me then," I said.
Rhea shook her head. "No. You don't know anything we don't have access to already. Lethe will erase memories, but the shape of them remains. If you decide to do something now it sticks. It resonates, even if you later won't know why. We're here to convince you to do something for us."
Great. My friends returned from the dead and it wasn't to welcome me back or give me long-sought answers. It was to make demands. I wasn't going to be that easy to convince.
"Rhea, I've a good dozen reasons to think you aren't even real and none to think you are. What can you possibly convince me to do?" I asked.
"Olympus lives and we need your help. Are you not going to answer the call?" Rhea said.
It was a line that once would have worked without question or hesitation. I really had died for the sake of Olympus and for its ideals. But a lot had happened since then.
"The patriot line isn't going to work, love," Orestes said.
Rhea shot him a glare.
"Love? You two?" I asked.
"Turned out he liked seeing me naked," Rhea said, with fondness evident in her tone. "We've a daughter, Alena. You'd like her."
"We didn't mean the name to be weird. We thought you were dead," Orestes said.
Well, if they were trying to pull a bit of emot
ional blackmail they were doing a good job. I didn't even want to think that of them, but how could I do anything else? If Olympus lived it was a secret, it was a very big secret. I actually believed it, it explained a lot. Them, those Olympian troops we'd encountered on the island.
"You're going to have to give me more," I said.
"We can't. We think we're secure here, but we can't be sure of that either," Orestes said.
Neither of us could trust each other.
"Tell me what you want," I said.
They shared a glimpse and it was Rhea that spoke. "We need you to get close to the Titans."
"The Titans?" I asked.
"Aphrodite and her whole family. If you haven't figured it out, they're testing you, studying you, recruiting you," Orestes said.
"We've seen you following their clues and doing their chores, but I know you, Alena. You're a fighter and you're just picking your moment to strike," Rhea said.
The Alena that Rhea knew was dead. Rhea might have an image of me in her head, but after all I'd been through since coming to the surface I couldn't help but be changed. I was still a fighter, but I wasn't the woman she remembered.
"And you want me to what? Sign on? They only have an interest in me at all because I killed a monster, and so far as I can tell they're all monsters," I said.
I was getting sick of the meaningful looks these two gave each other.
"Their interest goes beyond that. We haven't worked out their full plans, but we know that much. They want you and they want you fully committed," Orestes said.
"You're planning to sacrifice me," I said. The words just came to me, but they felt right. They wanted me to draw the enemy out, it was sound strategy. A small force could often lure an entrenched enemy into exposing themselves. It tended to go poorly for the small force.
"Yes," Rhea said.
"No," Orestes said.
They exchanged looks again, confrontational this time.
"These are old enemies of Olympus, Alena. There is so much I wish I could tell you," Rhea said, reaching out to rest a hand on my arm. "You were our champion on that day and we need you to be ours again."
