Chapter 39 - Ready or not

Meeting with Lady Arachne's retainers turned out to be a joyous occasion for everyone involved, once all the misunderstandings were cleared out. Mainly the one about the nature of the previous High Weaver. The retainers seemed to be greatly relieved, once they learned what gruesome fate he experienced.

For days, they celebrated this fateful encounter. It truly must have been their lady's will for them to meet. Cynane eagerly listened to the stories the retainers had to tell, about Lady Arachne, since she was unable to spend so much time with their lady in person. Hopefully, that would change in the future, once all of Lady Arachne's enemies were defeated.

And then the topic of their lady's child came up. It was surprising to learn about the child's existence. Moreover, if Lady Arachne could have a child with another woman, wouldn't Lady Sappho be her choice? Cynane, would not dare to question their lady's will, but she began to suspect that there might be something nefarious at play with the presumed Lady Arachne's child. That was why she wanted to see for herself, to discern whether the Weaver on the island of Lemnos did not proclaim his own child as Lady Arachne's. But for that she would have to wait for years, until the child grew, only then it would be clear if the child was not a phony.

Growing up this fast proved to be a painful affair. Using a few, ichor-containing medallions, in his reach he was able to go from an infant-sized little thing to a slightly less little thing. From a human perspective, he would have judged himself as seven or eight years old. He might have hoped for a bit more, but this would have to do.

And of course, the humans around him were so much shocked, that they immediately stopped doing anything they were doing, several of them dropping things they were carrying on the ground. Seeing an infant growing at a rapid pace into a child was not something to be seen every day, not even something humans could do and thus would not witness.

But for him, time was of the essence, every minute wasted could spell doom for him since he did not know what was happening with the Talos on the island of Crete, where his core was secretly hidden. It was also highly impossible to use any of his Olympian abilities to look at what was going on, lest he wanted to incur Zeus's wrath on himself. Which he did not.

"Mother! I will need a fast ship and a few men," he said, more or less ordering his mother what to do.

Except the woman was looking at him in astonishment. Everyone was, and as much as he would have loved to be the center of the women's attention, something that never happened during his time on Olympus, he was still in a hurry. But the humans just were not so cooperative. To make them move he needed some kind of incentive for them, ideally something that would make them make haste, just as much as he needed.

"Did something happen to lady Arachne?!" asked suddenly one of the guards with a medallion.

Assuming, from her perspective, it was a reasonable thing to think, given the information that women possessed. After all, he was being considered the local deity's child and it would not take many logical leaps to assume that something happened to the deity, if their presumed child instantaneously grew up. It was actually a very reasonable thing to assume. After all, was it not a child's duty to take care of their parents?

Although from hearsay, this Lady Arachne seems to be very capable, self-sufficient, strong, fair and also loving. Basically, everything Zeus was not, why couldn't he have her as a parent instead of Zeus? While he was technically considered her child, by everyone on the island of Lemnos, what were the chances that she was aware of him? Probably non-existent, otherwise she would have already contacted him. Maybe he could ask this Arachne to be adopted, once he meets her?

Either way, this was exactly the thing that he needed, to make things move along faster. And he would not be misusing the humans' trust all that much. Recovering his core was indeed vital, if not for Arachne, then for her presumed offspring, him.

"YES! There is this giant on the island of Crete, which holds something of great importance! My mo... another mother, Lady Arachne, bestowed me a vision about it. I must sail there and recover it, immediately!" he lied.

Not that they would know, and he would still need to power down Talos for a bit to retrieve his core, so it would be easy for him to pretend that the colossus was defeated. There was nothing that could possibly go wrong unless whoever was messing with Talos, did something stupid. Also, maybe acquiring some new clothes would not be out of place.

That very moment, all women who were poised here as guards, and who also carried Arachne's medailons, moved as one. Many of them ran out of the palace, in different directions, while two of them approached him. Did they see through his lie? That would be terrible, since he could not do much as a child, even as a demigod he would not stand much chance and then he would be forced to recover himself using Talos, while someone else was tempering with it.

"We have to get you some sturdy clothes before we depart, young lord," one of the approaching women said.

After figuring out that I was able to use more complex spells once again, by successfully performing Olympian shield formulae, I really wished I could just take the flight just like during my second life. But there were several problems with it. One the Imperial formula, was likely not compatible with the system I was now able to use. And the second problem was, that I had a completely different center of gravity, than a human.

Even though, that was the only small smear of the overall good luck, as of late. The practice of magic, which I devised for myself, was going along smoothly, with increasing success rates of Olympian shield formula casting. As such, the synchronization problem was nearly solved, which also resulted in less mana being wasted and thus higher efficiency.

Along with Medusa, I asked Persephone to explain the transformation spell, which should allow both of us to transform into more human forms, even if only temporarily and Persephone agreed. Since it would make a good impression on Persephone, once I was able to perform this spell too and it would also keep Medusa busy. Thus another study session started, in which I discussed the nuances of the spell formula with Persehono, while Medusa was intensely listening.

And of course, Medusa's mental health was improving by leaps and bounds, to the point she started quipping sometimes to the discussion I held with Persephone about the transformation spell.

Or at least Medusa was improving until two days ago, when the city of Miletus, whose name Persephone eagerly provided, was seen in the distance. Ever since that moment, Medusa's state took a turn for the worse.

It was not hard to conclude, that something much traumatic must have happened there. Something much more traumatic than, what Medusa told me through the time we knew each other. More specifically, she never mentioned, where or when she was turned into the monster by Athena. That was something she must have shared only with Phoibe.

"Miss Persephone, is there a temple of Athena in Miletus?" I asked, the Olympian, about the information she surely knew.

"Yes, and a relatively big one at that. While the temple itself is nothing special, there are gardens surrounding it, which are quite famous," she explained.

It seemed that my theory about what upset Medusa was right. This must have been the place where she became what she was now. But that could not be possibly all of it, since she was this much upset. There must be more meat to the bone, so to speak. The question was, what was it? And how should I broach the subject with Medusa, while not straining our relationship as a side effect of wanting to improve her mental health?

As to why I wanted to improve Medusa's mental state, it was simple, after weeks of debating it with myself I concluded, that it would be net positive if I accepted Persephone's offer and started work for Hades in the Underworld. At the same time, I wanted Medusa to be able to consider the offers herself, with a clear mind, since it would be advantageous if we both joined the Underworld's workforce. After all, Persephone did mention, that they were being overwhelmed with work. Thus, being able to split the work between more people, should result in more free time. Moreover, Medusa and Persephone seemed to get along just well, even if they barely talked with each other, so cutting my losses with Medusa was probably also not an option, as that could have a negative impact on how Persephone perceived me.

I found Medusa curled up between Orthrus's forelimbs, she was crying.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked her.

It was certain, that she wanted to be anywhere but near Miletus. And it would be easy to just go away and continue our journey like there were no problems at all. But there were problems. The most pronounced one was the fact, that Medusa would seemingly randomly reverse out of her recovery. Alas, I knew that was not the case, there must have been something that triggered those occurrences. The problem was, that I did not know what it was. Logically, it must have been something, that happened in the time period, which Medusa intentionally omitted to me and at the same time was somehow connected to Zeus's assault on her person.

"Home," she said.

The word "home", could mean many things for Medusa. One, it could be Mount Athos where she spent the past several decades, but that hopefully was not the case since it was too far away, and going there would increase the chance of encountering hostile Olympian forces. Neither it could be Miletus, since it was causing distress to Medusa. This of course left only the city of Helicarnassus, Medusa's birthplace and her home for several years before she joined the temple of Athena as priestess, a place she told me surprisingly much about.

The little being he took from Gaia, as his own, has proven itself to be very useful. More so than he imagined. To the point, he felt surprised. But how could he not like such a devotion and zeal, with which his little being was spreading the faith far and wide? He could never dislike it, even if it still had a bit of Gaia's mischief left in it. There was nothing he could do about it, but to rectify it in the being's siblings, that were to come in the future.

But this peculiarity did become useful, when it suggested that they should adopt different celebrations of those who did not yet believe, as their own, and change a few things here and there, so people have an easier time transitioning to new faith. It was not his own original idea and he did not like it much, but it quickly showed results. He could see the headache that would come from connecting all those different traditions until it became outright impossible. But the little being reassured him, that it would take care of those matters.

The adoption of different rituals, from different cultures, led him to an interesting thought though. The little being told him on a few occasions, that humans had a hard time comprehending his magnificence. How unimaginative creatures, these humans were. Why could he not adopt a form that was understandable for humans? Something they would find familiar. Something they all worshipped without a question.

And from the memories he obtained from the little being, he just found what he needed. How ridiculous that it was just another of Gaia's creations. But it would do for a time, and should the little being not disappoint, as it never did so far, he would hold the whole tiny microcosmos Gaia created for herself in his hands.

If this proved to be successful, he would then do the same with all others.

"My child," he called.

"Yes, Father?" the little being was immediately at his side.

"Take over Olympus," he ordered.