Chapter 68: Chapter 68: The First Olympian (865 BC)

Chapter 68: The First Olympian (865 BC)

865 BC, Korinthos

(Hestia POV)

Hestia had a feeling that she had found the mysterious Medusa. She sneakily followed after her. As she followed her, she noticed that the people ignored the woman, as if she wasn’t the founder and protector of the village. They didn’t bow upon seeing her and she bought some produce like any old villager would. It was extremely odd to Hestia since she was used to the way people treat her younger brothers. The woman, that she assumes is Medusa, was walking through the marketplace holding hands with the two purple haired girls. One of them dragged by her hand towards a stand of apples.

“Mama, can we have any apples. You promised you would make us a pie if we were able to finish our studies early.” She girl adorably pleaded.

“Alright, Stheno. But I’m only making one pie and you have to share it with your sister. We don’t want a repeat of what happened on your birthday.” The maybe Medusa responded.

The other girl groaned, “I told you, Mama, it wasn’t us. It’s not our fault; Uncle Erebus came in and just ate everything.”

“Then why did you have pastry all over your face?”

“He threw some of it at us…” The girl practically yelled.

The maybe Medusa sighed, “If you say so, Euryale.” She picked some apple and checked for their quality and put a good dozen of them in her basket. She showed the woman selling them how many she took and then handed her the coins to pay for them.

After buying the apples, to the delight of her two daughters, she returned to the road and continued her shopping. “Don’t look so smug, girls. I will only make the pie if you’re done with your work. And considering your lack of practice, it won’t be for a while…”

The girl, Hestia couldn’t differentiate her from her identical sister, groaned, “You’re the one who gave us this impossible spell, Mama. And why do we even have to know how to use a sword, you’ll always protect us, right?”

The woman sighed, “Of course I will, but sometimes, things happen without anyone expecting it and I will sleep easily at night when I know that you’ll be able to protect yourselves. The world is a very dangerous place, it’s only fitting that you be as dangerous as well.”

The woman’s daughters didn’t answer to the sudden change in tone. The fun loving mother from before was gone and instead there was a woman who has seen too much of the world.

Suddenly, the loving mother was back, “But enough of this depressing topic, the sea looks beautiful tonight, how would you like to go for a swim today?”

Both girls brightened instantly and looked at each other with smiles on their faces, “What about our lessons?”

The woman laughed, “This day is too beautiful to waste on lessons, Stheno.” The girls giggled at her answer and followed her.

Hestia was fascinated about that woman. She knew that she was powerful but people as powerful as her always abuse it in an effort to end up in positions of authority. Her family was a testament to that. Zeus was a powerful man, that’s true. He might have started out as a king, but he quickly got bored of it and now spends his time sleeping with mortals, much to his wife’s displeasure, and causes thunderstorms just for the fun of it. Hestia has never seen him dote on any of his children the way Medusa dotes on her daughters. Even Athena, who is known to be Zeus’ favorite, didn’t spend too much time with him during her childhood and started to actually know her father when she ascended to the council when she grew up.

To be honest with herself, Hestia assumed that she was the one who was different. That her priority for her family was something out of the regular. The other Olympians mostly indulged her kindness, but they forgot that Hestia was the first to have been imprisoned in Tartarus. And that she was alone in that hellhole with no explanations what so ever to why she lived in such a miserable place.

That crushing loneliness for decades changed her. Her family, no matter how hateful they became, saved her from herself. When her sister appeared in Tartarus as a baby, Hestia was just relieved that she wasn’t alone anymore. When all her siblings and other members of her clan started to fight for any shred of power, Hestia remembered the loneliness of the pit and chose to set her priorities straight. Power had no purpose without someone to share it with. The fact that none of the other members of her clan understood this is one of the reasons Hestia thinks that they’re not happy with their lives; the actions of Zeus are not the actions of a happy man but of a man trying to fill an unknown hole in his life. She just wishes that her clan will see that before it’s too late.

Now, back to the woman, she walked towards the beach and Hestia had to admit that it looked magnificent. The sand was so pale, it was almost white. The sea was deep blue without a single wave in sight. It looked like a giant sapphire that spread for miles and Hestia thought that it was almost a shame for it to be disturbed. Poseidon would love to see this; he was always fond of the sea.

The girls disrobed and one of them ran towards the sea, “Are you coming, Mama?” The other asked.

“No dearie, why don’t you go swim with your sister for a bit, and I’ll come join you in a few moments?”

The girl nodded and ran after her sister. The woman shook her head and chuckled. With a wave of her hand, she conjured two chair and out of nowhere, the burning sun was blocked. Hestia looked towards the sun to find a cloud perfectly obscuring where the woman was sitting. She was sure that the sky was absolutely clear a few moments ago.

Her musing was interrupted by the woman’s voice, “Aren’t you going to join me? I did make a chair just for you.” Hestia was startled at being discovered. This wasn’t going according to plan.

 

(Medusa POV)

It was a normal morning until today, even if some idiot bandits tried to assault a woman in the middle of the market, it was nothing out of the ordinary. I noticed that I was being watched and it was by the powerful witch that I detected arriving in my city the day before. I could tell that she had no negative intentions towards anyone inside, so I let her do her thing. I did build this village to take in anyone that had nowhere else to go. I never specified that it had to be a non-magical person. So having a powerful witch was no issue and from what I could sense, she was a good person with a good heart. The woman kept following me, through my entire time shopping and I suggested going swimming to the girls to be able to talk to her in private.

When the girls were swimming, I conjured her a chair and spoke, “Aren’t you going to join me? I did make a chair just for you.”

The woman looked startled and a little fearful of me and I had to reassure her; there was no need for a fight. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to attack you or something. It’s just that you’ve been following all day, you must be tired by now. Any refreshments?” I conjure up a cup of lemonade and hand it to her. She shook her head and I just shrugged; it was her loss; my lemonade was awesome.

The woman finally decided to sit down and for the first time, I took a good look at her. She was beautiful in an unpretentious way. She had small lines on her face showing that she smiled frequently, black hair that framed her face in ringlets and warm brown eyes. She wore a plain yellow dress and used no magic to accentuate her beauty like witches usually do. In a word, she was breathtaking.

I just smile at her and raise an eyebrow, “Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?”

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The woman smiled awkwardly and responded, “I am Hestia, daughter of Kronos, goddess of the hearth and family.”

I chuckle, I should have seen this coming. “There’s no need for that, Hestia. I know that you’re not a Goddess, just a descendant of Atlantis.”

Hestia looked startled, “How?”

I answer, “Do you truly think that your clan is the only one that survived?”

“You?” she exclaimed.

I nod, “You’re part of the Olympia clan, I suppose. I recognized your father’s name when I lived there. He was the talk of the city after he was announced as a Time Elemental. Spatial and temporal elementals were very rare and were given special treatment. Should he have reached adulthood before Atlantis sank, then he would have risen the position of your clan head immediately, it was why he was declared to be the heir of the clan even though he was fifth in line. Too bad, he was barely two centuries old when Atlantis sank. It was lucky that the Olympia clan family home was in the outskirts of the island. A lot of your clan members survived but they were all children. The older members joined the others in evacuating the children and perished during the disaster.”

“So, you’re….”

“Oh, right. I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Medusa.” I answered.

“That’s not your real name, is it?”

I grinned mischievously at her, “No. Names have power dear. I learnt long ago to not give it away so easily.”

Names do have power, but not over the person with the name but on the one using it. When someone is sufficiently powerful, they notice when someone far less powerful uses their name and can scry the person saying it. It’s not that deep but if my true name got out, it could get annoying really quick. I could turn it off, of course, but if someone knew it at this time, it would either have to be another survivor of Atlantis or someone with knowledge they shouldn’t have. Besides, imagine listening to every person uttering their name like Zeus and throwing a tantrum every time someone badmouths me.

“So, why are you here, Hestia of Olympia?” I asked,

“My brother, the king of gods, wanted to observe the city. It was hidden from his sight, and he was worried.”

“Perhaps, he should be. That is of no concern either way. I just created a basic protections scheme around the city. Nothing too powerful or dangerous but it does stop any type of scrying. Your king wouldn’t be able to observe without coming here himself. Besides, King of Gods? It’s very arrogant of him to declare himself so. If a true god was able to manifest himself on this plane, they would be very cross with him. So, what do you want to know?”

She looked startled, “You would just tell me?”

“I don’t see why not. I can sense no maliciousness on your part, and everything is public knowledge here.”

Hestia asked, “What is this place and why did you make it?”

“This city is a place for the lost and lonely. There is a place for everyone here if they follow the rules. They are free to live outside of wars, no monster or magical creature will attack them here. This is the safest place in Greece, of that I have no doubt. I found this place during an Nemean Lion attack and after killing them, the only survivors were my daughters. I needed a place to raise them and rebuilt what remained of the village into what you see today. Word spread of a safe place with easily found food and water and people kept coming and I kept expanding.”

“What are your intentions towards Olympus?” Hestia asked once more.

“I have no intentions, really. I don’t care about your clan much. Aside from being insufferable and arrogant, you clan mates are not that terrible. Yeah, you tend to kill and curse a lot of people for idiotic reasons, but I cannot hold your clan to the standards on Atlantis. These are barbaric times and I think that your clanmates adopted them as their own. My city is off limits and if one of them goes too far they’ll have me to deal with. And trust me, I’m not pleasant as an enemy. You saw that in the marketplace.”

Hestia nodded at my answer, I was not being unreasonable, and she knew it.

She asked another question but seemed hesitant this time, “Speaking of the marketplace, why didn’t the people recognize you?”

I laugh, “I tend to use different faces when I interfere if there’s a situation. Apparently, they think that I possess people to solve any attack. They just assumed that this form is of another normal woman who was possessed. It doesn’t help that as far as they know, Medusa is a woman with a bandage over her eyes that can petrify people if they look into their eyes and has green hair that can turn into snakes.”

The petrifying thing is not done with my eyes. I reverse engineered the magic of a cockatrice and turned it into a spell. I could theoretically perform the spell with my eyes if I want but that would be dangerous, and I could accidentally kill anyone that meets my eyes. Plus, some wrong information about me could be advantageous later on. That and reverse engineering the abilities of Dangerous magical creatures is a hobby of mine. I did have a lot of time on my hands.

“But why do all this? Why stay hidden?” Hestia asked.

I smile sadly, “There are more important things in life than worship and power. I didn’t want the girls to live as the great Medusa’s daughter, getting whatever they ask for and growing up spoilt without any understanding on how the world works. I picked my children over being placed on a pedestal and I do not regret it one bit. And being worshiped gets really old, really fast. It wasn’t worth the effort.”

Hestia smiled at me, and it was beautiful. Whatever I said to her seemed to really affect her.

I continue, “How long did Zeus leave you to do this assignment?”

“A couple of decades. He wanted me to infiltrate the ruling body somehow.” She answered.

I grin, “I guess we have all the time in the world to get to know each other.”

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