Setting sail was a quiet affair, with the sole exception to the near silence was the waking of the Gorgon A, Euryale. As expected, she panicked for a bit as she noticed she was bound, but the presence of the other Gorgon calmed her down swiftly. With nothing more than a few raised eyebrows, at the perhaps way too lively bags from the locals, my group and the Gorgons left Carthage.
The ship with my group and two Gorgons left the Carthage slightly after noon. Given this, there was a good portion of dayligh still available, and as I planned to sail near the coast, any possible Cetus should be easily spotted approaching the ship.
The question was what to do once the lighting conditions became less favorable for spotting potential sea monsters. There was always an option of anchoring the ship somewhere near the land or in another harbor. But that was hard to judge, as most of my geographical knowledge came from several thousand years in the future, and a different universe or reality, for that matter.
But even then, there was a more pressing issue to resolve before any stop near the shore could be even considered. And that was the matter of my two POWs, the Gorgons. It became quite urgent, mainly because the other Gorgon woke up.
Yes, there were no rules of war in this day and age, so no war crime could be committed no matter how I treated my POWs. But then again, I considered myself a modern civilized reasonable person, and just because the whole world was monstrous did not mean that I had to become just as monstrous. Yet neither I could underestimate the monstrousness of the the monster aboard.
Therefore it was necessary to discern their true nature and based on my findings, decide what to do with them. As such I asked the dread queen to assist me with the interrogation of the Gorgons, given she was likely knowledgeable about the two snake women. She looked slightly distraught at the idea I proposed, but I assured her that she was to only fact-check the Gorgons's statements, no other involvement was required from her.
I was able to assess the intentions of Gorgon B, to a certain extent, during our short discussion in the palace in Carthage, but the other's motivation still remained a mystery.
The main question was, how to approach them. Being needlessly aggravating towards them, as there was a form of temporary alliance established, would not yield much of a result. And would soon deteriorate to the open aggression, which could lead to the Gorgons' demise, which would of course negate the whole reason why I left them alive in the first place.
Firstly though, the introductions were in order.
"My name is..." I attempted to say just as I revealed my true form turning towards the Gorgons, in order to reintroduce myself to the Gorgon A, since there was no time to do so earlier.
"Aphrodite's t * ts! You have one huuuge spider ass!" proclaimed Stheno crudely, after I dropped my transformation.
"I assumed that you saw my real form before. Anyway, as I was saying, my name is Arachne, and I regret that we met under such circumstances, but I will have to ask you several questions," I said, trying to clearly state my non-threatening intention.
"Euryale, pleasure's all mine. Would you st..." answered Gorgon A, immediately trying to derail the conversation by asking likely something unreasonable.
"No! And do not interrupt me any further! Am I understood?!" I was forced to establish the position of strength in the conversation before the numbskulls took it someplace else.
Both Gorgons nodded in agreement. At the same time, the memories of my HR manager days were reminding me, that this interview was not going to be so easy.
"Why were you in the city of Carthage in the first place?" I asked the most simple question.
"I wanted to travel. We have been stuck in Libya for centuries, and it was becoming too boring to stay there. That is why we left," explained Euryale somewhat cheerfully.
Wanderlust was quite a common motivation behind many people getting into dangerous situations. As dangerous as it might have been for individuals attempting to traverse the world, it was also the main reason why humanity spread to all corners of the world, which inevitably led to innovation. It also led to massive-scale wars, eventually.
"I could not let my sister go alone, I didn't want to lose another," said the other Gorgon.
Stheno's sentence had a concerning implication. And that was the fact that there existed another Gorgon. Though at least this one was likely dead if the tone of the voice and the tension going through her head snakes was anything to go by.
I could just ask them, but that could anger the two snake women into illogical behavior, where they would refuse to answer any more of my questions. And again I would like to avoid doing anything more drastic than absolutely necessary, especially because of Medusa being here.
Luckily there was someone who already knew about the Gorgons, a thus had likely more information to provide about them. And since that person was none other than the dread queen, I asked Persephone if she could provide any details. She didn't disappoint.
"The Gorgons were one of the early attempts at creating demigods. But the experiment was declared as a failure and Gorgons were to be disposed of, eventually. One of the later successful demigods, Perseus, was sent on a quest to deal with them, to see how the declared success compared to the failures. He returned soon after, with the decapitated head of the latest, or the youngest of the three subjects of the Gorgon project. I would have to look into detail why such a gruesome end was required," Persephony looked sadly to the ground.
Unsurprisingly, the Olympians seem to fail at a multitude of things, for being self-proclaimed gods.
"Yeah, that that guy was an a ** hole, killed us regardless of Medusa pleading to spare us," said Stheno.
"Medusa?!" Medusa asked.
"Yes, our youngest sister was called Medusa," answered Euryale.
"We can discuss it later. I'm more interested in how you survived, given you said you were killed," I asked.
Knowing how the supposedly dead enemy survived was important in case I was still forced to dispose of them.
"I don't know... I got my throat slit, while Euryale was stabbed. I was sure it was over for us. But then we just woke up to the rotten headless corpse of our sister..." said Stheno, the disgust and confusion clearly visible on her face along with the guilt.
"That is terrible!" said Medusa, tears in her eyes.
Unsurprisingly my acquaintance was quite an emotional and perhaps too empathetic person. Because of that, she could get easily compromised, which resulted in me having to be her minder in certain situations. But right now, her empathy was to my advantage, as she could make easily the Gorgons tell more than they might want. Not to mention, she and Gorgons have uncannily similar physiology and the coincidence of having the same name as their sister.
"Miss Persephone?" I turned towards the source of information, who in her own right was a walking encyclopedia of knowledge, who could hypothetize based on her knowledge.
"While I do not know the full specifics of the Gorgon project, from the description of their deaths, it is possible that the shock from the wounds sustained caused them to fall unconscious, rather than killing them outright. Then it might be possible for the regeneration to take effect. Although the wounds do seem to be lethal... The threshold must be different for the Gorgons as they are the prototype for demigods, " said the dread queen, pondering about how the fatal would not cause death.
Simply put, this Perseus person who was sent to kill the Gorgons was just too lazy to make sure that the Gorgons were truly dead. A human error then, despite him being a demigod. Although, even the self-proclaimed gods, or Olympians as they called themselves, had many of the human flaws as well.
Regardless of the self-proclaimed gods, there was one more highly important question I needed to ask. One that I was ultimately leading this whole interrogation towards the whole time. And that was, to learn why the Gorgons attacked the the king of Carthage, revealing so recklessly their inhuman nature.
"If you only wanted to travel, then why attack the king?" I returned back to the original topic with this question.
Hopefully, the now somewhat sober atmosphere of the conversation and Medusa's display of empathy would untangle the snakes' tongues, so to speak.
"Well, the king was an a ** hole. He had it coming anyway!" said Stheno without any shame.
"And his daughter was really beautiful. Nothing like you, but..." added the other Gorgon.
Really? Was the whole reason why the Gorgons went after the king because they wanted to impress the princess? It was the highly idiotic reason. But given the information obtained from Persephony, such behavior was quite common among the Olympians and their creation. Seemingly they just loved humans way too much. In that regard, it seemed that I was lucky to have Medusa and Persephone as my companions, as neither seemed to be particularly Olympian-like in this regard.
She was quite certain what the Euryale wanted to ask Miss Arachne about. And she found herself angered, because of it. And because she herself might not have the courage to ask the same.
It was frustrating to be this close, yet being unable to...
But she had ONE great advantage over the Gorgon. She, unlike the snake woman, already earned Miss Arachne's trust. Something she learned was quite hard to get.
Moreover, they would be parting with the Gorgons in a few days, so there was no chance of Euryale earning Miss Arachne's trust in such a short time. On top of that, she and Miss Arachne were practically immortal, so she had still a lot of time to...
What in the world she was even thinking about? The whole premise was just... But...