2.12: The First Mission

Location: Attica

Time Remaining: 15 years

Athena stood on a rise overlooking Piraeus and Moschato, which sat on either side of the mouth of Cephissus’s river in Attica.

“I have a number of missions for you, my friend,” Athena said to the owl perched on her shoulder, “But your first mission will be something very personal. An old friend of yours is in need of help, though she does not know it.”

“Hoo?” The owl cried.

2.11: The Gift of Athena

Location: Attica, Eastern Coast

Time Remaining: 16 Years

Nemesis carried the body away from the farmlands - she didn't want the widow finding his corpse the next time they plowed the fields, so she headed to the nearby forest and collected wood for a pyre.

"How do you feel?" Nemesis heard the voice again, but this time she recognized it.

2.10: The Goddess of Rhamnous

Location: Attica, Eastern Coast

Time Remaining: 16 Years

Nemesis had gone to Tartarus partly hoping that the masters of the underworld would be able to spare her from the pregnancy that Zeus had inflicted upon her, but Hades had been unable to do anything about it - if either of the parents had been mortal, perhaps, but with god-blood from both sides, there was nothing conventional to be done. As Nemesis's due date came closer, he did come up with a risky alternative involving an egg (for lack of a better word), that allowed Zeus's offspring to be removed from Nemesis and birthed by a surrogate mother devoted to Persephone.

2.09: The Kindness of Persephone

Location: The Fifth Gate of Tartarus

Time Remaining: 25 Years

It was the virtue of compassion that had betrayed Nemesis in the end; Zeus and Aphrodite had staged a trap to capitalize on the weakness, and Nemesis ran into it blindly. After Zeus left there was pain, of course, both tangible and intangible. That was at the front of Nemesis's mind. There was also despair, at being cast aside and abandoned by her master, conflicting with fear that he might yet decide to come back and continue where he left off. Nemesis was also dragged down by humiliation and anger with herself, a carefully forged killer who’d somehow become a compassionate fool bleeding on the carpet. When she recovered from Aphrodite’s poison, Nemesis had gone outside and waited for Andesidora to return. She couldn’t bear to go back into the house, so she stayed outside that night, waiting. She sat and waited for a day and a half, but Andesidora never returned.

2.08: Dead End

Location: Greece

Other gods would certainly have balked at serving a human in this way, but Nemesis’s life had been one of service and hardwork. She’d always forsaken luxury, as well, so a servant’s bed was more than comfortable to her. She cleaned and cooked – fortunately two centuries of infiltrations and stake outs had taught her some basic domestic skills, and Andesidora was forgiving of any mistakes. Although Nemesis had to work long days, Andesidora shared her meals generously, and Nemesis regained much of her health and fitness. Eventually, Andesidora tasked Nemesis with work related to her apothecary practice, sending her trade or forage for ingredients, showing her all the ways they could be utilized, and building upon Nemesis’s not insubstantial knowledge of medicine.