2.04: The Long Dark Night

Location: Near the foot of Mt. Olympus

Time Remaining: 31 years

Nemesis felt gentle warmth on her skin and heard the pop and crackle of burning wood. She drifted in and out of darkness for a while – how long, she had no idea – before she finally pulled together the resolve to urge herself back to waking. She’d thought she’d heard voices, but now they became clearer – they were feminine, and one was very excited.

“I think she’s awake!”

Nemesis raised her hands to confirm they were still attached after her long fall. Her bleary vision cleared away as she blinked, and she was able to see that her talons were gone. She didn’t clearly remember hitting the ground, but apparently she’d used her last moment of awareness to shift to a human form. Doubtless, that had saved her life. Gods and goddesses did, in fact, bleed if enough force was applied, or if the right sort of weapon were used. Their relative immortality could largely be attributed to their innate shape-shifting abilities. Severed limbs and mutilated organs could be restored to working order with deliberate concentration, but often it was simpler – required less thought – to shift into an alternate, very familiar form.

When Titans or Olympians shape-shifted, it was like wiping a chalk drawing from a piece of slate before drawing something new. When Nemesis had hit the ground, her skull had fractured, the bones in her limbs had been pulverized, and her rib cage had been so badly crushed most of her organs had ruptured. While her human form was far less durable, shifting to it resolved most of the physical damage.

Nemesis tried to sit up, but winced in pain as her body protested. Shape shifting could erase wounds, but the pain lingered. Hera had told her once, long ago, that this pain was similar to the ‘phantom limb’ experience humans have when they lose a limb. It was psychological, but so deeply embedded in the shape-shifter’s consciousness that the pain could be debilitating, and until it faded, returning to the injured form would restore the wounds that shape-shifting had erased.

“Take it easy, dearie,” one of the voices said as a cool cloth found its way to Nemesis’s forehead, “How are you feeling?”

“Everything hurts,” Nemesis said honestly.

“Hm,” voice number two said, “You should see the other guy, right?”

“The other guy was the ground…”

“You left a four foot deep crater where you landed,” a third voice said, “You are one tough crust of bread. But I suppose that goes with being a god, doesn’t it?”

Nemesis pulled herself up and looked at her human extremities, quizzically.

“Oh, you were already in this form when we found you,” the first woman said, “But the crater you left at the foot of Mt. Olympus was a tip-off, to say the least.”

Nemesis’s head cleared enough to attend to her rescuers; three Achaean women, all ten to twenty years past traditional marrying age, garbed in simple but clean clothing. One was fetching stew from the nearby hearth, while another stood at a window watching the night-shrouded world outside.

“Storm’s coming,” the woman at the window said, “I can smell it.”

“Now that you’re awake,” the first woman said, “I’m Kalosyni; we’re all dying to know who you are. Symponia thinks you must be Hestia, herself, come to test us, but Zestasia says you have the look of a warrior, and insists you must be Athena.”

“Nemesis,” the goddess said simply as Symponia brought her some of their stew.

“Oh, my!” Symponia exclaimed, “Please, we are simple, humble, pious women! Whatever we’ve done to offend the gods, please forgive our transgressions and sins!”

“I’m not here to harm you. Or anyone.”

“But… you’re the Goddess of Divine Retribution. You hunt heretics and punish hubris…”

“Not anymore,” Nemesis said, “My master wishes to give me a new purpose.” 

“A new purpose?” Zestasia said from the window, “What purpose?”

“Breeding,” Nemesis said.

“Oh…”

“Well,” Kalosyni said, “I take it that didn’t go over well with you.”

“I… I attacked him…”

“Oh dear,” Symponia whispered, “Should we be…”

“Symponia!” Zestasia scolded her, “Would you turn away any other poor girl in her situation?”

“No…” Nemesis winced again as she set her bowl of food down, “Your sister is right. I attacked Zeus. I’m a pariah and an apostate. Sheltering me here will bring the gods wrath down upon you. So long as I remain here, you will be in danger.”

“Don’t fret,” Kalosyni patted Nemesis’s hand, “What cause would Zeus have to knock on our door?”

There was a loud crack followed by a building rumble outside. “Storm’s here,” Zestasia said, “Still no rain though…” A haunting howl came from outside, and Zestasia put the shutter in the window.

“When was the last time we saw a wolf…?” Symponia fretted.

“It’s probably just someone’s hunting dog…” Kalosyni said, “But nevertheless… let us pray to Our Lady to see us all through the night safely.”

The three women stood in the center of their little house and held hands in a circle as they began praying in Minoan Greek. Another thunderclap drew Nemesis to the window. She slid the shutter aside – but saw nothing but darkness, the light from the full moon cut off by the thick storm clouds that blotted out the sky. When another lightning bolt bathed the outside world in white light, Nemesis spotted a large wolf lingering at the edge of the woods, and the next flash of lightning revealed a hooded man beside the beast – Zeus in his human disguise.

Outside in the darkness, Artemis shifted into her god-form, her loose green garment materializing in the same moment, and her bow and bronze-headed arrows after that.

“Nemesis is in that house, father,” Artemis said, “The women inside are frightened, and Nemesis is weakened.”

“Those senses of yours are uncanny, daughter, though tonight they tell us only the most obvious of things,” Zeus smiled, “Nemesis, pet, come out of there and kneel before your master! You have much to answer for!”

Inside, Nemesis contemplated her situation. She’d committed a terrible sin when she’d refused Zeus, and a greater one when she’d attacked him. The right thing to do would be to go outside and submit to his will. The thought twisted her guts, though, making her feel almost physically ill. What if she didn’t, though? Zeus would burn the little house in the woods down with his lightning, or order the lesser gods of the winds to blow it away. Hiding would only delay the inevitable and stoke Zeus’s rage.

Certain that sheltering in the house accomplished nothing save to put her human rescuers in peril, Nemesis started to go to the door, but Zestasia broke the prayer circle and caught her arm, “What will happen to you, girl?”

“I will be punished,” Nemesis said, “And probably imprisoned in Tartarus.”

“For refusing a man and defending yourself?”

“Zeus is not a man,” Nemesis said, “He’s the king of all gods.”

“If you really believed that, I think you would have found his advances more appealing,” Zestasia said skeptically.

“I… I… I was wrong… I should have been grateful for his attention.”

“A woman should trust her instincts on such matters,” Zestasia said, “And a goddess should certainly not question them.”

Nemesis hesitated, her mind divided to the point it felt like it was going to break, “Regardless,” she finally said, “If I do not comply, the gods will kill you all.”

“Have faith,” Zestasia said, “Zeus is not the only power on Olympus.”

Zeus shouted again, “Did you damage your hearing in the fall, my pet? I said come out here!”

“She hears you,” Artemis said, “But the humans are encouraging her to defy you.”

“What? How dare they?! I knew Nemesis had been too soft in executing her duties. Now the humans think they can simply do whatever they wish…”

Zeus transformed into his towering, godform, electricity crackling from his eyes and finger tips as he reached to the sky. A storm of lightning bolts fell upon the house, but each one bent away at the last moment, arching into nearby trees or striking the earth harmlessly. Zeus growled in annoyance and summoned another salvo that was no more effective.

The crashing thunder frightened a flock of brown-feathered house sparrows into the air. They spiraled over the house and then fluttered away, revealing a hooded woman perched on a staff that looked like a besom, which hung in the air above the roof.

The woman drew back her hood, revealing her thick brown hair and emerald green skin, “The denizens of this house are under my protection, littlest brother.”

Zeus ground his teeth – Hestia was the eldest of Zeus’s four sisters. Unlike Hera, Demeter, or Zeus’s twin sister, Aphrodite, Hestia had actually had something of a childhood before their father had shut them away in Tartarus. Like Hades, she seemed to think this somehow made her wiser than most of her siblings on moral issues. They seemed to forget that Zeus was the only one of Kronos and Rhea’s children who’d never spent any time imprisoned in the virtual utopia.

“My quarry is not one of the denizens of this house, but the apostate they are sheltering.”

“The apostate? You mean our sister?”

“Nemesis is not our sister. She’s a thing. A tool, a device. Hera raised her to serve us, not to have a head full of her own thoughts.”

“Hm, of course, nothing could be a greater heresy in your mind than a woman having her own thoughts,” Hestia glared at him, “Tell me, littlest brother, what specifically has she done to invite such rage? Did she spurn you? She did, didn’t she?”

“It’s unacceptable!” Zeus shouted.

“Hm,” Hestia smiled, “I think we’ve been in this moment before, haven’t we? Yes, after Aphrodite, Demeter, and Hera, you came to me. And unlike them I refused you. I don’t think ‘unacceptable’ is the word you used then but the underlying misogynistic entitlement was certainly the same.”

“We can revisit that moment now,” Zeus said, “Time has been kind to me. I can do things with my powers I wouldn’t have imagined back then. And what can you do, old woman?” Zeus mocked, “Turn into a pussy cat and scratch me? Wave your broom at me?”

Zeus reached up and brought down another storm of lightning, but again it bent away from the house, ravaging the surrounding forest instead.

“You can’t match my wards,” Hestia said, “I can shield this home from wind, rain, lightning, and pushy men all night.”

“Daughter,” Zeus smiled at Artemis as he cleared the clouds away from the moon, “Show your aunt what you’ve learned.”

Artemis looked uncertain, but she reached towards the moon with both hands, feeling the pull of the celestial satellite on her body and soul. She amplified that pull, intensified it, and the earth swelled beneath her feet. With a push of her hand, Artemis sent forth a wave that rumbled through the earth, toppling fences and trees, and shaking the house. She pulled back her hand and the wave rushed back to them, and then began moving back and forth beneath the house.

“Artemis!” Hestia cried, “Stop it! You will kill them!”

Much to Zeus’s annoyance, Artemis let up her assault. The house teetered and creaked. Hestia cast a spell trying to steady it, but as soon as she was distracted Zeus brought down another lightning bolt, rattling the house and setting the roof on fire.

“No!” Hestia jumped off of her besom and put her shoulder against one corner of the house to arrest its creeking, but she was too late. The burning roof caved in, women screamed, and when one of the spinsters inside tried to escape the front wall collapsed, crushing her in the door.

“Symponia!” Kalosyni screamed, but her cry was cut off as more of the house collapsed. The falling walls revealed Nemesis, back in her godform, holding the roof up to shield the two remaining women. That she was struggling meant she was still weak from her previous encounter with Zeus.

Hestia reached across a ruined wall to help Zestasia escape the crumbling building, but a blinding flash burst from Zeus’s hand, a bolt of lightning launching forth and striking Nemesis dead-on. Nemesis could absorb the voltage from Zeus's lightning, even replenish herself with it, but the violent expansion of the air in front of her was a different matter. The goddess flew backwards like a round rock poked with a stick, and the rest of the burning house came down , crushing Kalosyni.

Zeus transformed into his eagle form and flew forward, but Hestia unceremoniously knocked him out of the air with her Besom, and began beating him with it as her brother returned to his godform. The two deties began trading blows at close range, fists as strong as iron pounding against bodies as hard as stone.

“Zestasia!” Hestia shouted as she struck Zeus across the jaw with the heel of her hand, “RUN!”

Zestasia ran away from the house, but the goddess of the hunt, ruled by her untamed, predatory instincts, reacted to the flight of the frightened creature by shooting her in the head. Zestasia’s body collapsed to the ground. Hestia cried in grief for her slain follower, and Artemis herself was taken aback by her own callous violence.

“Artemis!” Zeus shouted as he kicked his sister, “Bring me our prey!”

Artemis ran past her father and her aunt, skirting the burning house and disappearing into the forest. She followed her nose, and found Nemesis struggling to crawl back to the fight.

Artemis walked over and knelt next to her as Nemesis clawed her way across roots and rocks,  “What are you doing?”

“He killed them!” Nemesis cried, “He killed them! Because of me!”

Artemis looked away, the guilt of her actions weighing on her heart, “If Zeus wishes to take a life, then it is his to take.”

“N-no!” Nemesis’s head hurt as she tried to think, “It’s not… not… right!”   

“Zeus decides what is right and what is wrong,” Artemis said, “All he does is righteous.”

Nemesis stopped struggling and laid still. She began crying. It felt strange to do so involuntarily. Her tears streamed down her face and spattered in the dirt.

“You need to heal,” Artemis said, “Can you change form?”

“My human form was hurt when the lightning hit the house.”

“A wild animal then, a bird. Transform and fly away from here. Fly to Apollo’s temple and seek refuge with him. If anyone would defy Zeus it would be my brother.”

“You’re… you’re not going to take me back to him?”

“I can’t take back my mistakes, but I don’t have to make more. Now, go!” Artemis threw out her hands and reached out with her mind, riling every animal in the forest larger than a grasshopper and sending it running, scurrying, or flapping away from the burning house. Nemesis shifted into the form of a large hawk and joined the frantic exodus, heading for Apollo’s temple.