It took a bit more time to establish our relationship, but after slightly longer than a year, I was confident that Medusa and I were good acquaintances. Having a similar predicament and sharing a lot of unfortunate through our long lives, did help. And the fact, that she was extremely empathetic to my plight, helped me to understand her own difficulties.
Needless to say, I was convinced, that while we were as not as close as family, and nowhere near my comrades from my second life, there was a lot of room to grow in that direction. Therefore all the hardships I suffered, in order to find this particular individual, were more than worth it. And given our long lives, there was no need to fear running out of different conversational topics, in the near future.
Also, I found that there were some similarities between Medusa's daughters and my troops. Which created another conversational topic of its own. How strange though, that women, I was training and ten snakes permanently attached to Medusa's head, could have so much in common. I was certain that training soldiers was far from being a parent...
Lately, though, the topic of our conversations changed. They were mostly about Sappho, how we got to know each other, how our relationship developed and how I was handling her subsequent departure from life. It was not hard to realize why Medusa was asking such questions. Sappho's student, Phoibe, was getting ever so older and weaker by the day.
She was quite an old lady, one might even say too old for this time and age. As such it was obvious what was inevitably coming, and it seemed that Medusa was looking for some comfort in my experiences, with this exact situation. She was afraid and uncertain. Therefore, I decided to prioritize the narrative of all the good things, that happened between myself and Sappho and advised Medusa to spend as much with Phoibe as she could. Since, being afraid of getting ousted, in front of people as a monster, prevented me from spending more time with Sappho, which was clearly a bad decision on my part as it was wasting precious time, that could have been spent more productively.
To no one's surprise Phoibe, eventually died of an old age. But as it seemed Medusa has been handling it quite well. As such, I let her be for the time being, so she had time to go through all the stages of grief. While I did write my share of grievance letters during my second life, I was never the best individual to support others directly.
But eventually, it became clear that Medusa would not be able to go through the grief on her own. Since she started to spiral. Which posed a problem to me, as it became harder to support her. I was no expert in human psychology and the access to knowledge concerning a loss of kin, in this period was more than limited, if not outright impossible. Neither it was possible to use the same tactic, as I used for my comrades or troops, just to order them to power through it, nor did I share such a relationship with Medusa and Phoibe, that I could outright say that I understood since that would be a lie.
My best option then was to just be available on a moment's notice and check regularly on Medusa, several times a day. And while that was mentally and physically tiring, it seemed to bring some results. A few months after Phoibe's death, Medusa seems to be getting better, which is great.
The two of the three were already waiting in the throne room of the Olympus as per their third brother's request. Though neither of them knew what Hades wanted from them. It was, in fact, an unusual occurrence for Hades to tell them to meet in person.
"Do you have any idea what Hades might want?" asked one of the two present.
"No I don't, Poseidon," answered the other.
"Strange... Do you think he is trying to be all edgy and mysterious again?" questioned Poseidon.
"Hopefully not... Though isn't Hades mysterious all the time?" returned the question Zeus.
"Is he?" raised his eyebrow kind of seas.
"Is he what?" asked the newly arrived Olympian.
This caught the attention of the two, who were already in the throne room of Olympus, as their brother did appear out of nowhere and definitely did not use doors to enter. Zeus and Poseidon shared that sort of look, which only they would know what it meant. They were sure their other brother was at it again. They would let him have it, for a while.
"Nothing too important, Hades. Why did you call us here?" asked Poseidon.
"Ever since our little problem with the spider woman, I've been going through memories of recently departed humans, for any clue on this being," started Hades, his explanation.
"Did anyone see her?!" asked eagerly Zeus.
"No," said the king of the underworld.
"Then why all of this?" continued Zeus slightly disappointed.
"If you would let me finish, then you would have learned that our spider woman is not the only monster we have not cataloged," explained Hades.
"There are more?" sound startled Poseidon.
"Sadly, yes," said solemnly ruler of the dead.
"What did you find?" asked Zeus in a serious tone, slightly gripping his throne.
"Medusa," answered Hades with a single word or more specifically a name.
"Me-Medusa?!" shuddered Poseidon further into his seat, trying to look small.
His two brothers knew how traumatic was the mention of Medusa to him. However, in the end, it was the trauma of his own making.
"It cannot be descibed as anything else but Medusa. Relatively beautiful woman, with snakes on her head instead of hair" started Hdes.
This indeed got the attention of his two brothers. Wave the word woman in front of the two and they would give their full attention to anyone who said it. And Hades, did need his brothers' full attention, as the appearance of a monster, or a monster similar to the one that has been long killed, was unprecedented. Although Poseidon seemed incredibly uncomfortable at the mentions of the snakes. But as he was not passing out unconsciousness outright, Hades figured out that he could push the topic a little bit further.
"She lives on Mount Athos, and that's it. I would have to investigate the memories of the person I got this information from, further. To get more details," explained the king of the underworld.
"You do that, Hades. We need to know how exactly she came to be if it is in the memories. And meanwhile, I will do a little bit of investigation of my own," said Zeus.
"How noble of you, brother," cringed the ruler of the seas, but at the same time was glad that he did not have to do it himself.
"That was always the plan... Quite frankly, we have to figure out where both of these monsters are originating from. These two unknowns, are not a coincidence," explained Hades.
"Well. I guess that leaves me with nothing. Or I could spread nets and look for any other unknowns. What do you think?" pointed out Poseidon.
"I suppose we all are going to be busy... Just be careful, brothers," said Zeus.
Dear Diary,
apologies for not writing for a while, but I've been extremely busy. Like, you could not even imagine how much I've been busy. Ever since Artemis found some of the life-stone statues, made by the second Medusa, I could not even get a bit of rest.
It was all her fault anyway, that Medusa, that I had to run around like a headless chicken, hiding away the mess she made. At least the Aegis got to air up a little bit. I mean, it was the best way to find those cursed statues of people. Without it, I think I would have been still wandering around, without as much of a result. And the worst case, Artemis who is so much better at tracking things, than me, would have found more of those lifes-tone people.
And that would not be good. Not good at all. While I love Artemis, and I am sure she feels the same about me, if she managed to track down the second Medusa and somehow found out, that I'm responsible for her creation, she might tell father. I mean she would be obliged to do so. Maybe I could have tried to persuade her otherwise, but somehow I doubt it would work. Yes, I'm not that confident in my ability to... Let's say distract her.
But at least, as of now, I've hidden all evidence of the second medusa's existence, so there should be no worry about me being exposed. And the fact that I chose a perfect place to hide them is a bonus. No sane human would go there, the place is just unlivable, or at least should be long enough for everyone to forget that there was any Medusa in the first place.
And while all of this is great, all is not completely good and well. In the meantime, while I was hiding the evidence of the second Medusa's existence, Nike got hurt. Poor thing. The uplifted human she might be, but a great assistant she is. Like, there is no other that is as capable as her, who would know their place. She does everything and anything as required, without any of the typical grumbling, one might expect from other Olympians. Isn't she actually superior to Hermes in that regard? She sure is, but not that I can tell him that, cause Hermes would get all salty, just proving his inferiority.
But then, that idiot Ares decided to make more of his Amazonians. Like, it was not enough the first time?! The only thing he can make is a mess. But apparently no! He makes more of these warriors of his, and then they go and start destroying Athens. What in the Tartarus was he thinking sending them to destroy MY city?! No way I could have let him do that. But I was busy hiding the lifes-tone statues...
So, that is where Nike and Argonauts came in. I mean, they were already close by, so sending them there was just logical. The easiest solution.
Not that I could have expected these new Amazonians to be as strong as they were. Though they were not a match for Nike, she still got hurt.
Well, at least the morron Ares got quite a punishment from Dad. That's what he gets for creating some stupid things, for the second time. At this point, he should learn not to make monsters, if he is so bad at it.
To her surprise, she somehow became a High Weaver herself, in a shocking and unprecedented turn of events. She remembered it clearly as if it happened just a few minutes ago, but that was not true at all. It already has been several months. Yet during those months, her mind has become clearer than ever before and she could see things like no other. Even the biggest philosophers of this era and those thousands of years after them, would not even scratch the surface of the things she now could think of.
Therefore it was so clear to her, that while unexpected to her, since she used to be a mere mortal. The grand plan of Lady Arachne was unraveling itself right before her eyes. And thanks to the blessing, from Lady Arachne, she have received in the form of red ampechone, she became an instrument of her lady's will. Her extension and tool, how truly divine.
But Cynane, even if understanding so much was clearer than any other of the humans around her, could not even begin to comprehend her lady's multilayered intentions for this world. Yet that did not matter as of now, she would understand in time.
What was important for now was to consolidate and expand the cult, with trusted individuals, so it could become firmly rooted on the island of Lesbos and eventually beyond. For that exact reason, it required the cooperation of the local people in building a proper temple in Lady Arachne's name. Along with building a palace for their lady, once she returned to the island of Lesbos.
As High Weaver, Cynane had the power to order the construction of both luxurious structures. Not only would the people get work they would also serve a higher purpose. Should someone protest though, the red ampechone around her shoulders could always use a snack. At that though it seemed to slightly purr like a cat.
"You will need a name," she said softly patting the being in a form of red cloth fabric.
"Why?" it responded.