Chapter 80 - Athena And The Hero - Part 3.5

Important note for Athena fans: This chapter has only a small apparition of Athena.

All J

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Two years ago.

Distressed after having a vision, Anemus fainted as she was hit with a pain that she had never felt before.

That pain came when she had a second vision that showed Athena crashing into the ground.

When she woke up, Fotiá was sleeping beside her, holding her hands. When she saw Fotiá's childish face, Anemus' green eyes trembled as tears manifested.

(Fotiá... Athena died...) Anemus cannot manage to gather the strength to bring those words out. (What do we do?)

Anemus was sure of her beloved's death and her heart ached as if she were being ripped from her chest.

(I... I couldn't even make it up to her...)

Regret flooded her heart and sob made its way to her lips at the cry that came to the surface without asking permission.

Anemus has never felt so sad, so lonely, as at that moment. Not even when Hades disappeared, she felt with such clarity and pain, this sadness and loneliness...

This was grief.

A devastating feeling that rips through your soul and paints everything in the world a faded gray.

A feeling that you can hardly recover from. A curse of sadness ingrained in your life as you say goodbye to someone.

Anemus never thought she would feel this.

Nobody thinks.

"You're crying..." Fotiá said when she woke up. "Why?"

Anemus pulled Fotiá closer and hugged her tight as she let go of her sadness, her mourning roar like a wounded animal.

"Fotiá...!" Anemus spoke between sobs. "Fotiá, Athena... Athena is dead!"

Fotiá, who had her face between Anemus' small breasts, made a complicated expression.

She couldn't understand what Anemus meant by that. She clearly could feel Athena still attached to her.

The bond was weak and she could no longer tell where Athena was, but she sensed Athena. It was impossible for Athena to die without Fotiá noticing.

"No." Fotiá pulled away from Anemus' embrace. "Athena... Mommy is alive." Fotia said with conviction. "I'm feeling her right now."

"Huh? How?" Anemus asked with a snotty face. "How do you know? How can you be so sure?"

Fotiá shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, I just feel."

Fotiá said what she felt and Anemus listened attentively, wishing that her harrowing intuition and that those visions were wrong.

The nymph stilled her mind and fixed the thought that Athena was alive by repeating it, as if it were a mantra, over and over.

The two years passed and Anemus continued with this repetition, this mantra, every day. This served to continue to believe that Athena was alive and to ease her pain.

And now, there in front of her, someone was saying that Athena was dead. Anemus' heart was crumbling again, but then Fotiá's voice cleared her mind again.

"I feel like my mom is up north somewhere." Fotiá told the stunned people.

Lobana had her eyes wide open and in her heart a small spark of hope ignited, but she didn't want to be fooled and that spark soon died.

"Feel? Do you feel her here in the north? But I saw her fall!" Lobana said as she stood up and faced Fotiá that was eight inches shorter than her. "I saw her try to save herself, I saw her giving up and parting smile, I saw her disappear in her fall! You may be longing for her and kidding yourself because you're her daughter. But that doesn't mean what you feel is real!"

Fotiá frowned and her hair flared like flames. "My... MY MOTHER IS ALIVE!" She screamed and fire erupted at the ends of her hair. "YOU DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING!" She was furious that Lobana insisted that Athena was dead when no one else did. "IT IS ME WHO IS MY MOTHER'S DAUGHTER! HOW WOULD A FRIEND KNOW THE TRUTH?"

Fotiá's skin reddened as if the flames ran in her veins and the ground smoked under her bare feet.

"Fotiá calm down! You're going to burn the entire inn down!" Lunnia said as she approached.

Fotiá looked at the knight's worried face and her anger was extinguished as if it were a lie.

"It's her fault..." Annoyed, Fotiá muttered.

"I know how you feel, but you don't have full control of your powers to be pissed off like that." Lunnia said and then looked at Lobana. "And you, I don't know what you saw or missed, but I believe in Fotiá."

***

Mifa was looking at nothing in the vast golden evening sky, she was leaning against the balcony railing of the royal room.

Everything was silent in the garden and there, memories invaded Mifa.

That garden was where she spent the winter in Athena's arms, sipping hot tea in the cold weather and saw Athena beat a knight until only a box of meat was left.

There they exchanged countless kisses. Kisses that most often ended up in bed.

(Where are you?)

Mifa only thought about Athena. Every time she found herself smiling thinking about her love, soon after came the sadness of not being with her.

Mifa took a deep breath, swallowing her tears and heard someone approaching.

Without turning around, she sniffed the air and a scent of oak and cherry entered her nostrils.

"Don't take another step." Mifa said while rubbing her nose. She hated that perfume. "Aren't you supposed to be with your wife and kids?"

"Why are you always so hostile to me? Our kingdoms are allies." Said the man hoarsely because of the pipe in his hand. "I've seen the kids. They're beautiful like Serien."

"Good for you... So what? What do you want?"

"Straight down to business, huh..." The man looked at Mifa's back and lowered his eyes to her tail height where there was a small cleavage that showed the top of her ass. "I want to take care of the kingdom's affairs while Serien is resting."

"I told you not to take any other step." Mifa said with authority in her voice. Her ears twitched slightly at the sound of the man's shoes.

"Serien is in no condition to take care of the kingdom's affairs and even now, the late Queen's projects are still causing problems that need to be resolved."

Mifa remained staring at nothing while she listened to the man. She took a deep breath, turned and looked directly at the man.

Veron was a man in his late thirties, with long brown hair tied back in a low ponytail. His eyes were serene and dark as night and his lips always wore a smile.

That smile was disturbing in Mifa's eyes.

"I will not allow a duke to exist in the kingdom of Athena. The nobles do not and will never have political power in Basilica. This is a decision of her majesty Athena." Mifa said with disgust on her face.

"I know well what the deceased queen has done to this kingdom and its nobles..." Veron remained calm, sucked in the smoke from his pipe and blew out a puff of smoke. "Limiting their authorities in their territories and yet making them follow the law of the kingdom without giving them permission to preach their own laws..."

Mifa's eyes narrowed at the anger rising in her face. "What are you implying?"

"Me? Nothing. Don't get me wrong." Veron turned his pipe on the balcony railing and knocked the last of the burned weed off the object. "Is just that the nobles think that now that the queen is no longer with us-"

He didn't finish the sentence. Mifa pulled the man by his black coat and pressed him hard against the railing which trembled and cracked as Veron moaned in pain.

"There won't be any changes." Mifa bared her teeth like a mad dog. "Tell your king that if he meddling too much in Basilica's affairs, maybe on one of these nights, he'll sleep for the last time." Mifa placed her claws against the ribs of the man who twisted his mouth. "And make no mistake. You're disposable, and it's not just for me."

"I... I..." Veron started to speak and Mifa pressed her claws a little more against his ribs, which were starting to bleed. "I'll make sure to let the nobles know that."

Mifa pulled Veron and threw him to the ground. "Know that the moment Serien says she doesn't want you anymore, if you're still in the national territory of Basilica, I'll make sure of ripping your heart out of your chest." Mifa lightly kicked the man's leg. "Now, never again enter Athena's room or return to that garden. My patience has been very short for the past two years, Trigan is proof of that."

***

"Sorry for what I said if I'm wrong." Lobana said.

The tension in the room was high even after Fotiá had calmed down.

"I don't understand this thing you said about feeling Athena. Could you explain better?"

"Hm..." Fotiá was still sulking.

"Fotiá, I don't understand either. I'd like to know too." Anemus said and Fotiá sighed as she relaxed her face.

"That day Mom and I went to the town and I got kidnapped... Do you remember?" Fotiá looked at Anemus who nodded. "I don't know how, but when Mom promised to never leave me again, we both glowed and after that I started to feel her and we also started to be able to talk even though we were away from each other."

"Eternal Bond..." Anemus muttered upon hearing Fotiá's explanation. "Did you use the Eternal Bond on Athena?!" Anemus asked with a sharpness in her voice. "I thought you were under some Athena magic and I didn't consider it..."

Fotiá tilted her head to the side, not understanding. "Eternal Bond?"

Despite her age, Fotiá was young and didn't know a lot of things about what it's like to be a nymph born from someone's mana.

Normally a nymph would have her mind developed before completing a year of life when participating in battles or studies, or doing anything with her master, but Fotiá's case was special.

She spent over three hundred years as an ordinary child and just recently her mind has come to maturity.

If were to put it in human terms, at the moment Fotiá was around fourteen and could barely control her own magic even after two years of training.

In other words, at that time, there would be no way for her to know what she was doing.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?!" Anemus' voice was loud, but she wasn't screaming.

"I have not." Fotiá replied sincerely.

"By the goddess…" Anemus said as she lowered her head and rubbed her temples. "Now I completely believe you."

"Eh? You didn't believe it before?" Fotiá asked with indignation in her voice and face.

"Yes and no." Anemus lifted her head with a smiling face. "Athena is alive."

***

Meanwhile, inside a cave somewhere north of the world below.

"Are you sure you don't want to eat?" Athena asked Hercules.

She and the children devoured pieces of the giant centipede that Athena had killed as if it were the most appetizing thing they had ever eaten in their lives.

"This thing doesn't bad if it's cooked well." Malana said while biting a leg.

Athena laughed. "The best seasoning is hunger, my dear."

Hercules' stomach complained and he cowered at the cave entrance, keeping his watch.