2.06: Power

Location: Temple of Nemesis

Nemesis didn’t have as many temples as the other gods, or as grand of temples. The punisher of hubris and righter of injustices had fewer regular worshippers, barely more than a cult. Though small in number, they could be quite devoted, however, and the devotion of gods and goddesses’ worshippers energized them, so Nemesis flew to her nearest temple – a place of worship near the mouth of the Cephissus river. The temple’s priestess, Echo, immediately came out and prostrated herself before Nemesis.

“Praise Nemesis, Dark Avenger of Olympus, how may we serve you?”

“I am being hunted by Zeus,” Nemesis explained, “I need to recover my strength.”

“Then you shall have our thoughts and prayers,” Echo said, “Please, Lady Nemesis, join us in the chapel, and let your worshippers tend to your injuries, physical and nonphysical.”

Echo led her into the temple’s main chamber. It was largely dark, save for strategically located sconces that illuminated her statue and a series of murals across the walls. The murals told Nemesis’s story – she’d been plucked from darkness by Hera herself and granted a portion of Zeus’s power as an infant. She’d been raised on an isolated island southwest of Crete, where she’d fought for survival, every day, until she was a powerful and hardened warrior. Then she’d been sent out among the people of Greece to ferret out heretics and punish wrong-doers.

The handful of people worshipping inside flocked around her, begging for her to intervene in one injustice or another, but when they discerned her weakened state they brought her offerings of food and wine, and began performing ritual demonstrations of their dedication. Nemesis sat down on a lion fur and ate slowly, wanting to show her worshippers that she was grateful for their sacrifices. As the night went on, the worshippers retired to their homes, leaving Nemesis alone with Echo.

“My lady,” Echo said, “What do you mean when you say you are hunted by Zeus?”

“I showed mercy to a mortal,” Nemesis explained, “Zeus and Hera ordered me to terrorize a heretic’s child. I spared the child’s life, and my master’s stripped me of my station. I am no longer the goddess of divine retribution. Truthfully, I ought not to be here. In asking for your supplication tonight, I misled you.”

Echo seemed stunned by the revelation, but eventually recovered. “You showed mercy to the child?”

“Yes, essentially.”

“And the child was innocent, not accountable for its parents’ sins?”

“The child was a toddler, so certainly not responsible.”

“Then what alternative did you have but to spare the child’s life?” Echo asked, “Wouldn’t any other course of action have been unjust? And are you not the deliverer of justice? Justice without mercy or compassion… that would only be revenge, wouldn’t it?”

“But Zeus decides what justice is and is not,” Nemesis said uncertainly.

“Does he, though?” Echo said, “Because I feel like goddess who spares an innocent baby’s life may be a better judge of right and wrong than the god who condemns it to death.”

Nemesis looked at her with surprise.

“Of course, I realize that saying that qualifies as heresy against Zeus…”

“Maybe…” Nemesis shrugged, “But that’s not my responsibility anymore. Say whatever you wish – I have no obligation or authority to punish you for your words.”

“Well, the truth is…” Echo took a breath, “From everything I’ve heard, Zeus and Hera are cruel and vain. But that does not seem to be the case for all gods, which makes me think that Zeus and Hera’s actions are not indicative of a divine morality independent of my mortal sensibilities. It makes me think that they are simply terrible people, who by luck of birth are unaccountable for sins that would see a mortal man or woman stoned to death in the streets.”  

“You believe that you, a human being, are morally superior to Zeus, a god?”

“Zeus ordered you to perform an immoral act, correct?” Echo said.

“Because he is Zeus, any command he gives is moral, by definition.”

“A god is moral because he does morally good things, and the things he does are morally good because he’s a god; isn’t that circular logic?”

“I don’t see the problem with that,” Nemesis said, “The circle is the most divine of all shapes, and gods are no more accountable to human logic than to human morality.”

“But you’re not human,” Echo pressed, “You’re a goddess; what seems right to you?”

Nemesis found that surprisingly difficult to answer, and before she could invent a response, their attention was drawn to the front of the temple by a brilliant blue-green light filtering through from the outside.

“What is that?” Echo asked.

“Hera,” Nemesis frowned, “She’s probably decided to help Zeus.”

“Is it possible that she’s here to mediate a peaceful resolution to your conflict?” Echo asked.

“I suppose it’s possible…”

“Then I will try to discern her intentions,” Echo said, “If she’s here with malicious intent, go out the back of the temple and flee. I will delay her.”

“I can’t send you out there. If she’s here at Zeus’s behest, she’ll use your life as leverage; kill you if I don’t surrender.”

“If she intends violence, you will not prevail. You aren’t strong enough to face her yet,” Echo said honestly, “And I am your priestess. I swore my life to your service when I took up that mantle. What more could I ask for than to save the life of my god?”

“But I told you,” Nemesis said, “I’ve been stripped of my station at the Constellar Palace.”

“But not in this temple,” Echo said as she headed outside, “Here you are still the goddess of divine retribution, and my pledge to you is undying.”

Outside, Hera waited with a small contingent of human soldiers, and a handsome man who was unmistakably of Titan descent.

Echo prostrated herself before Hera, “How can I serve my Lady?”

“I am here for the goddess of your temple, Nemesis.”

“As are all who are welcomed in this temple,” Echo said, “We’ve concluded our services for the evening, but we could surely make an exception for you…”

“I’m not here to pray to her, simpleton.”

“You believe she is here incarnate?”

“Of course I do, why else would I be here?”

“What do you wish to speak to her about?”

“That is none of your concern, mortal,” Hera said.

“I’m bound to serve my goddess to the best of my ability – if she is here, I must announce her visitors properly.”

“I’m her queen, not a visitor.”

“But you are visiting,” Echo said, “Doesn’t that make you a visitor?”

“Don’t play word games with me, fool.”

“A thousand pardons. If my lady is here to play a game, she may certainly choose the sport.”

“I’m not here to play a game!” Hera shouted, “I’m not here to talk! I am here to find Nemesis, and drag her back to the Constellar Palace screaming, so that she can bear Lord Zeus children!”

“I’m so sorry,” Echo said, “I had always been led to believe that you were Zeus’s wife…”

“I am! And I always will be!”

“Will you? If you bring him another goddess to bear children for him, isn’t he likely to leave you?”

“LEAVE ME?!” Hera shouted, “He wouldn’t dare?”

“I forget my lady; are you Zeus’s second wife or his third wife?”

“I am… wait… Gah!” Hera cried in frustration, “You’re stalling. You’re trying to distract me!” She grabbed echo’s head between her hands. Hera’s right index finger grew longer and thinner, and snaked into the woman’s left ear.

Echo screamed as the goddesses appendage bored through her ear canal, “NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! NO, PLEASE!”

“You talk too much,” Hera said, “Shut up.” A final thrust of her finger caused Echo’s body to fall into a seizure. Hera pulled out her finger and flicked the blood off of it as it returned to normal size.

Echo collapsed to the ground, staring at her attacker. She tried to scream, to curse, to shout, but all she could say was, “Shut up. Shut up. Shut up,” in an endless loop.

“Burn the temple,” Hera ordered her men, “Gather wood if need be and douse it with oil from the amphorae inside. I want the whole building razed to the ground.”

“Razed to the ground!” Echo cried.

The five men who’d accompanied Hera marched into the temple, but found that it was completely dark – the sconces had been extinguished, and it almost seemed as something sapped the remaining light from the room as they entered.

Nemesis, had heard what happened outside, and she hadn’t run. Concealed by the darkness, she slipped around behind the man who was closest to the entrance. She grabbed him, wrapping her right arm around his throat, and pulling his sword from his belt with her left as she used the talons on her feet to slash the backs of his legs, between the bottom of his leather tassets and the tops of his sandals. She released him, and the man fell to the ground screaming. The other men raised their simple weapons – they’d come armed to deal with worshippers, not a goddess.

Nemesis calmly killed three of the men as they flailed blindly in the dark. Each one that she killed made her feel stronger, more powerful. The fifth man was the titankin who’d accompanied Hera. He’d be stronger, tougher, than any mortal man, and that was assuming that he hadn’t learned any of their ancestors more spectacular abilities.

Still, Nemesis felt better, stronger than she had in days. She channeled the energy she’d stolen from the light in the room and struck the man with a writhing blue tendril of electricity. He yelped and jumped back. He tried to circle around and counterattack, but the erratic motion of the blinding lightning whip in the darkness made it next to impossible for him to discern her actual location in the room. She lashed him repeatedly until he fell to his knees, and Nemesis wrapped the pulsing whip around his neck. It shocked him, again and again, until she uncast the whip. As the writhing blue energy dissipated, the man fell flat on his face, unconscious.

Nemesis marched out the temple door, spreading and flexing her wings. Hera saw her and began to wheel about on Echo, who was still on the ground, but Nemesis flicked a small bolt of lightning in Hera’s path, causing her to jump back.

“Echo, run,” Nemesis said.

Echo stumbled to her feet, repeating “Run, run, run!” as she sprinted away, leaving Nemesis alone with Hera.

“What did you do to her?” Nemesis asked.

“I just re-trained her mind to process information more… simply,” Hera said, “Don’t you remember me doing the same to you as a child? No, of course you wouldn’t. Well, needless to say, my work on you was much more refined.”

Nemesis lunged forward, striking with her talons. They were strong and sharp enough to cut almost any gods natural skin, but Hera used her shapeshifting abilities to cover her arms in a thick, hard, horn-like substance. Hera grew spikes from the natural armor that she slashed at Nemesis with, and when her reach proved too short, she stretched the armor out to form mantis-like scything blades.

Nemesis couldn’t match Hera’s shape-shifting abilities, but she was a more experienced fighter, who’d killed more than her fair share of monsters. She ducked and dodged, spun and rolled, and took Hera by surprise with a slash of her talons that caught Hera in the small of her back, splattering hot god-blood across the ground.

“Careful child,” Hera smiled, “You’re making me crabby!” Hera covered herself with a bony, spiked exoskeleton, her forearms growing into a pair of large pincers that she snapped at Nemesis. Nemesis began snapping small bolts of lightning at her from just out of reach, delivering painful shocks that crawled across and under her carapace, then jumped on her from behind, digging her claws into her joints and delivering stronger jolts of electricity.

Hera withdrew her armor plates in favor of slimy, scaled, eel skin, her eyes turning round and black. Nemesis plunged her talons into the soft skin, but her stored electricity drained rapidly and Hera knocked her away with a surge of strength.

“You can’t destroy the one who made you, foolish girl,” Hera said. “Now, come along peacefully before I have to start trying.”

Nemesis lunged at Hera again. Hera manifested her exoskeleton again, but Nemesis grabbed both sides of Hera’s heads and plunged the long, sharp thumb talons into her eyes. Hera screamed and knocked her away. She created four lidless eyes above the two Nemesis had destroyed, but she was too late – Nemesis had fled into the night.