Morning came, and Seika didn’t have a shower or bath the night before, so she opted to take one right after waking up. She gently separated Miori’s arms from her body and gave her a little kiss on the forehead before she walked towards the door. Medusa was already waiting for her.

  “Do you wish to bathe, Princess Minerva?” She asked, bowing in front of Seika. She nodded, and the woman led her through the corridors. As opposed to Jove’s residence, this one’s halls weren’t covered in history. Only a single mosaic was present, which depicted Minerva bursting out of Jove’s forehead.

  Seika assumed that her partner would fill these hallways with more of her own history in due time.

  “We have arrived,” Medusa declared, and they entered what appeared to be a small changing area, with the large bath already waiting ahead. She simply brushed the shoulder straps of her dress aside and let it fall to the ground before she turned around and quite obviously waited for Seika to do the same. She tilted her head in confusion as she saw Seika desperately trying not to look below her neckline instead.

  “You should get undressed for the bath, Princess Minerva. I will attend to you and wash you,” she declared. Seika wanted to object, but the attendant simply walked towards the little washing area in front of the large bath, leaving her behind. Seika let out a long sigh and disrobed as she was instructed before she followed.

  ***

  “I can wash myself,” she insisted, but Medusa shook her head. She soaped up a washcloth and dutifully attended to the goddess she was assigned to.

  “Please, Princess Minerva. Let me do some of my duties,” she whispered quietly, and Seika relented. She looked to the side, to the large bath that awaited her. It was more like a pool, framed by more stone pillars, with an open roof. It must have been a pain to keep in such a pristine condition, all things considered, or at least Seika thought so until she looked further up and saw the fake sky that was painted on the roof of the even larger structure covering the city. Falling leaves were simply no concern in this city, she concluded.

  Her thoughts were interrupted as she felt warm water being dumped over her body to rinse the soapy foam off her. Medusa took a step back and bowed.

  “I will guide you to the bath, Princess Minerva.”

  Medusa gently grabbed Seika’s hand, leading her to the pool and the underwater stairs that allowed her to comfortably descend to shoulder depth. Seika let out a little sigh and looked towards her attendant.

  “Thank you, Medusa. Feel free to join me in the bath as well, if you haven’t already taken one.”

  The attendant smiled and squirmed a little in place, like that suggestion was somehow inappropriate, then her head turned and she walked towards the entrance.

  “Good morning, Princess Bellona. Let me wash you as well.”

  Seika watched Miori enter, with Medusa convincing her to let the same procedure happen to her. After a while of observing, she suddenly felt hands on her shoulders.

  “Hey! Good morning!” she heard Pallas’ voice and jumped in surprise. As she turned around, she saw the blue-haired sea nymph grin at her.

  “Why so jumpy?”

  “I… I didn’t see you in here at all when I entered!”

  “Oh, that must have been because I was floating near the bottom of the bath. The water near the tiles gets really warm and cozy when they get heated from below.”

  Seika blinked. She must have been in here for at least ten minutes, but she never saw Pallas emerge for air. Her eyes wandered down, and she clearly saw the girl’s body turn into a long fish tail below her navel, with gills covering her flanks.

  “I forgot about that detail,” Seika admitted dryly.

  “Mistress Pallas, please don’t surprise the Princess so. You’re the granddaughter of one of the High King’s brothers, so some decorum…”

  “Got it, Medusa!” Pallas responded in a slightly annoyed tone before she waved at Miori, who promptly joined them in the water.

  “You really should join us, Medusa,” Seika insisted.

  I want to be nice to her. I want to avoid what happened in our mythological texts.

  She could see the hesitation on the attendant’s face, but bit by bit, she lowered herself into the water, joining the trio of goddesses. After a while, all the tension melted away and the four simply let the therapeutic warmth of the bath sink into them.

  After the bath and a luxurious breakfast which reminded her of the birthday feast Minerva once made for her, Seika stood in the temple-like hall, with Medusa and Pallas flanking her. Miori left for her own mansion, where she would similarly receive requests, and get acquainted with her own attendant. They waited for petitioners to come to her, to ask her for help or counsel. She was a little nervous; she could help with defeating beasts, or maybe heal someone’s wounds, but she wasn’t sure if she could offer ‘counsel’ as such while keeping up the pretense of being Minerva herself.

  Luckily, the first person who entered needed more direct services, rather than counsel. It was a man carrying a young child in his arms. The young girl had a cut on her arm and her father looked at Minerva with awestruck yet expectant eyes.

  “Hail, Princess Minerva! My daughter was playing near the guards’ armory. She tripped and cut herself on a sword someone left leaning against the wall. The one responsible already got a scolding, but please… would you heal my daughter?”

  Medusa stepped forward and addressed the man.

  “The princess has heard your plea! She will make her decision now!”

  She turned around and looked at Seika.

  I think I’m not usually speaking during these things.

  Seika nodded, and Medusa turned around again.

  “Princess Minerva is willing to help you and your child. Step forward!”

  The father nodded gratefully and carried his daughter towards Seika, who met him halfway. She looked at the cut on the girl’s arm. It was deep, but luckily it didn’t hit a major blood vessel; at least she could tell that much. It was a bit unsettling how the girl had tears in her eyes but didn’t actually cry. Maybe the people here were hardy from birth, or they suppressed themselves under the eyes of their gods, but the lack of ‘natural’ human reactions from a small child was still unnerving to Seika.

  She reached out and hovered her hand above the cut before she channeled her healing magic into it. She watched the cut close, bit by bit, then it was gone, with only a faint line bearing witness to it ever having been there.

  “Thank you, Princess Minerva!” the man exclaimed with a wide smile on his face after witnessing her healing magic, running his hand through his daughter’s hair, who looked up at Seika with big, grateful eyes.

  “The princess wishes you well. Take care, now.” Medusa announced and the man nodded, bowing as well as he could with the child in his arms before he left.

  “…shouldn’t I talk to them?” Seika commented.

  “It is my duty to convey your will to the people, Princess Minerva,” Medusa responded with a little smile.

  “…among a lot of other things,” Seika commented dryly.

  “Is there something about this that you dislike, Princess Minerva?”

  “It’s just… when we first met you nonchalantly offered to join me in my quarters. You meant… intimately, yes?”

  Medusa nodded, her expression unchanged despite the salacious topic.

  “Of course, Princess Minerva.”

  “Don’t any of your duties bother you?” Seika prodded. “Is it just what’s expected of you?”

  Medusa looked at the ground before she looked directly at Seika. “You wish for me to speak my mind, yes?”

  Seika nodded.

  “Serving you has been a lifelong dream of mine. It was revealed to me in a prophetic dream that I would be yours to command, and nothing would fill me with more joy than to serve you. That includes the things you are hesitant about, like washing you, or offering you my body if you ever desire it. Please rest assured, whatever I offer you in service, I give gladly, without reservations.”

  Pallas suddenly stepped up and patted Seika’s shoulder.

  “Most attendants are like that. They receive a prophetic dream, and from that point forward they are the most devoted servants of whichever Deogemma they saw. A few of them became mothers, or even fathers to demigods and nymphs that way, like my mother.”

  Seika nodded and faced Medusa again.

  “Well, I’m already in a happy relationship, so I don’t need those kinds of… services. Feel free to find a lover of your own, too. I wouldn’t mind.”

  Medusa blinked and bowed deeply before Seika before she spoke again.

  “One more thing, Princess Minerva. Are you feeling any different?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Have you noticed any change with your powers? Now that you have performed an act of healing, you should… ah, let me demonstrate instead.”

  Medusa drew a knife and before Seika could even react, she expertly cut her arm, applying the exact same wound the child bore earlier.

  “Heal me, and witness the difference.”

  Seika nodded and quickly reached out to apply her healing magic to Medusa’s cut…

  ***

  “Amazing. There’s no scar left,” Seika said as she inspected Medusa’s healed arm.

  “But the child’s arm…”

  “The child’s healing served to fuel our citizens’ faith in your healing abilities. This faith, originating in our world, directly empowers you. Therefore, providing services to our citizens like this will in fact make you grow stronger, Princess Minerva,” Medusa explained and showed her a gentle smile.

  “Keep going, and you will be almost as powerful as your father one day.”

  One of the next requests required her to leave the house, with Pallas in tow. Medusa waved at them from the mansion’s gate as they walked through the streets towards the city gate. Supposedly, a chimera was causing trouble in a hamlet at the foot of the mountain, so the two of them had a bit of a trek ahead of them.

  As they left through the impressive city gates, a cobbled mountain path awaited them. The plant life was almost nonexistent at their altitude, and their destination would be below the cloud cover.

  “Has there ever been an attendant who refused their prophetic dream?”

  “Far and few between, but yes. You are worried about the implications of them being chosen via prophetic dreams and then… doing whatever their master wants, aren’t you?”

  Seika nodded, and Pallas appeared deep in thought after that. They kept walking down the mountain path, and now, after they had passed through the cloud cover, the first pine trees appeared and they came past small villages from time to time, which herded goats, or even operated a vineyard. Down here no Deogemma appeared to live, and there were only humans.

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  “I’ll be honest, I can’t put myself in their shoes. Or in yours, and how you might see the relationships between attendants and masters. All I know is that humans came to us, first. Our kind were content to live on our mountain all by ourselves, but now we appreciate the company, and I certainly appreciate that I’ve been born. Maybe there’s an argument to be made about whoever gives them their prophetic dreams having ulterior motives, but no one knows if they even have a source, since even Deogemma get those dreams. Like Princess Bellona’s attendant, Nerio.”

  Seika accepted that for now and nodded. Suddenly, Pallas stopped and scrunched up her face, then she grabbed Seika by the arm and pulled her off the cobblestone path.

  “What… what’s gotten into you?” Seika complained, and Pallas put a finger on her lips to shush Seika. She hid behind a tree and peeked out from behind it, looking at another village ahead.

  “I don’t want to run into Fama,” Pallas said, and Seika furrowed her brow, looking towards the village. She saw a woman with golden glowing hair, which was tied into a bun, while similarly golden wings sprouted from her back. She sat on the edge of the nearby hamlet’s well and was engaged in conversation with the locals. The conversation had people erupt in laughter at one point, and at other points they lowered their voices and only spoke in hushed tones.

  “She’s a blabbermouth,” Pallas continued. “She lives for good rumors, without any care for whether they are true or not. If she sees us together, she might come up with a spontaneous romantic tale about us.”

  “Now I’m kind of curious what she’d say about us,” Seika teased and Pallas let out a little groan.

  “Come, let’s get this chimera and go back home without being noticed by her,” she said in a slightly annoyed tone before she snuck down the mountain, far off the beaten path.

  ***

  Before she read up on mythology to understand Minerva’s origins, Seika only knew chimeras from video games, mostly the Final Fantasy series. The more she thought about it, the more she was surprised how many things she knew and took for granted were influenced by Greco-Roman mythology, and thus, humanity’s contact with the Deogemma. From what she remembered, she would have to expect a creature with a lion’s, a goat’s, and a snake’s head, all three at once, while one of its heads, typically the goat, would spew fire. The version she knew from a video game used lightning and ice between two different heads, but as Pallas informed her, that was not true for the chimeras of this world.

  They could see the destruction wrought by the creature. They stood in a vast wheat field, and some of it had already burned down, while farmhands ran towards billowing smoke in the distance with buckets in hand.

  “I can use water to help them extinguish the fire… so why don’t you go ahead and confront the creature?” Pallas suggested, and Seika nodded.

  “According to our petitioner, it picked a nearby cave as its current residence. Like that one!”

  Pallas pointed towards the hills, and there was indeed a cave there. Then she took off towards the fire, leaving Seika to summon her cane sword to her side and approach the cave entrance. She could already hear a snarling from the inside, and the ground around the entrance was scorched. Seika summoned a flame in her open palm and entered the cave.

  The cave was dark and damp, and way more spacious than it looked from the outside, though it was still narrow enough that Seika worried about the chimera’s breath attack.

  Maybe I can lure it outside, where I have more room to dodge. But then it could cause more damage to the fields… what do you think?

  The silence in her thoughts that followed was deafening, and Seika looked at the ground.

  It’s so lonely in my mind since the attempt on our lives. I miss you, Minerva.

  Something happened. A tiny pulse from her chest, then a warmth that filled her body. Seika smiled. For now, that would suffice as an answer.

  Her little moment was interrupted as a low snarl came from the end of the cave, and she immediately readied herself. The shadows moved, and three sets of eyes, glowing like embers drew closer. Each step shook the ground a little and Seika narrowed her eyes. In a way, she was worried. This would be the first time she fought in this strangely fused body of hers. Would she have all of her Magical Girl abilities?

  For now she lifted the fireball in her hand higher, to finally illuminate her foe and take a good, long look to see what a real chimera looked like. The light illuminated the interior of the cave brilliantly, revealing the rock around them, with a bounty of crystals embedded inside it, and then, finally, it illuminated her foe, or it should have. It remained a sentient shadow.

  ***

  Shadows were Minerva Crimson’s nemeses. They were the first monsters invading Earth, and she was its first Magical Girl. It was also a deeply personal vendetta for Seika, who spent days trapped in darkness, unable to move, breathe or speak, and was forced against her will to witness how the creature devoured people while it filled every nook and cranny of her body with its own shadowy essence to drain her energy and reproduce. It was an utterly violating experience, and to this day still, whenever Seika was confronted with a Shadow Queen running loose, it was a coin toss whether she would suffer a panic attack or not.

  Minerva was usually there to help her out of that debilitating state, but right now, Seika was on her own. Her heart hammered in her chest and the edge of her sight grew blurry as she saw the dark creature step towards her. The lion’s head snarled as she fell on one knee, clutching her chest as a cold sweat ran all over her body. She retched, falling fully on her hands and knees, and vomited, dragging her fingernails against the rocky ground of the cave.

  It's dark… it hurts… no one knows I’m in here… they are trying to kill me…

  The usual words echoed through her mind. The thoughts of a much younger Seika, who was convinced that she was witnessing the final moments of her life. Powerless, trapped, and alone.

  I’m scared! I’m going to die, Minerva! I’m scared for my life!

  She felt a rising heat and concluded that the chimera had no pity for her and prepared to burn her to cinders. She clenched her eyes shut, ready to accept her fate, but…

  …you’re… strong. It… no longer happen…

  Seika’s eyes went wide as she heard that voice, and she reached out a hand. The creature’s fiery breath crashed against a hastily erected barrier, and she let out a scream, pushing back against it. Her heart was pounding in her chest still, she had tunnel vision, but at least she could move.

  Minerva?! Are you there? Answer me!

  There was no response. Seika let out another scream, this time one of frustration as she pushed forward, rushing the large creature. Lightning surrounded her blade, and she slashed at the Shadow, carving into the side of the lion’s head. It let out a loud, pained roar and spun around, slamming its snake tail into Seika’s side. She was launched into one of the walls, cracking the rock and knocking loose a few of the shimmering crystals, but strangely enough, she didn’t feel any worse for wear.

  Your power is truly my own as long as we are fused like this.

  Her vision cleared and her heart calmed as she became more and more aware of her own strength. She pushed herself off the wall, this time with more focus. The snake’s head shot her way, aiming to bite her, but she summoned magic circles in the air which she pushed herself off of, using them like midair platforms. The snake’s head soared right past her, and she didn’t hesitate in the slightest. She hacked at it, separating it from the rest of the Chimera’s body. The goat and the lion’s head both let out a bone-chilling scream and swiped at her with the lion’s claws. She held her blade in front of her and caught the strike, then she stopped herself with a magic barrier as the strike catapulted her backwards. She sheathed her cane sword again and pointed the crystal towards the chimera.

  The first magic she weaved was a simple analysis spell, to check for a human occupant. Minerva usually did this for her.

  Huh, strange. No occupant, but it has the mythological shape of a Shadow Queen.

  She didn’t get to dwell on that detail, as the goat’s head wound up for another attack. Seika wouldn’t let it finish.

  With a thought, the cave grew an abundance of stalagmites from the ground. They impaled the creature, which had been too focused on getting back at Seika to dodge such a wide-area attack in time. It growled, struggling, which only dug the spikes deeper into its shadowy flesh. After a few more moments, it had stopped struggling and twitched uselessly on the pointy rocks.

  Seika let out a long sigh and undid her spell. The carcass fell to the ground and liquefied, like any other of its kind. However, it suddenly moved, slithering towards the cave exit.

  Still alive?!

  Seika cursed and fired off a few fireballs after it, then she stopped as she saw a man standing near the cave entrance. He wore black robes, and his hair glowed in a blinding white, marking him as one of the Deogemma.

  “Out of the way! It’s still alive!” Seika shouted as a warning, but he didn’t move. Instead, he stepped into the way of the slithering creature. The shadow hit his foot, then it crawled up his leg and his torso until it finally wound around his right arm and, by what Seika could see, merged with him.

  “What in the…”

  “What a pathetic show, child of Zeus,” the man spoke quietly. His jet-black eyes met with Seika’s, and that familiar feeling of nausea washed over her, which only gave rise to alert as he spoke his next words.

  “Or should I call you Seika? It’s been seventeen years since we last had the… pleasure.”

  Seika immediately drew her cane sword, pointing it at him.

  “Put that thing away. I have no desire to fight you. That’s what my aspects are for.”

  Seika saw red and rushed him. She led her sword in a horizontal slash across his chest, but his body simply opened a gap. Her blade cut only through air as the gap in his body traversed across it in synchronicity with its movement and she stumbled, while he stepped aside, looking at her coldly.

  “Trust me: if either of us truly clashes with the other, all hell will break loose. I advise you again: don’t try it.”

  “Shut up!!” Seika shouted and flung fireballs at him, one after the other. In her rage she flung a literal barrage the way of the strange man, which exploded and illuminated the cave in an orange glow.

  She feverishly looked for a sign of the stranger, then she froze in horror as she heard his voice behind her.

  “You can’t kill me. Not in that pathetic state you’re in right now, anyway. Even Zeus himself is afraid of me and my beloved, but still, he is surprisingly protective of his bastard children, and if I were to attack you, he would be here before I could even snap my fingers, much less your neck, and he would bring his entire court with him.”

  Seika turned around and surrounded her sword with lightning, pointing it at the strange man, while he took a step back.

  “Who are you?! Why have you targeted me for almost two decades?”

  His smile grew monstrous as he threw his arms wide. A darkness spread from him, even suffocating the light of the fireball Seika held in her hand. Everything was a black void, save for his white glowing hair and teeth, which now appeared jagged.

  “I am darkness incarnate! I am one of the primordial children of the origin of the Universe! I am Erebus!”

  He vanished in the darkness, and Seika desperately looked for him, until he wrapped his arms around her from behind, continuing in a whisper as he restrained her.

  “Ahh, we had such a good time when you were trapped in one of my aspects. The pain, the fear… the uncertainty. It was so utterly delicious.”

  Seika felt a cold sweat breaking out all over her body and she struggled, straining against the forceful embrace.

  “Let me go! Let me go!!” she now shouted as the same panic from before grabbed a hold of her. Her heart hammered in her chest and her vision grew blurry.

  “Ah, there it is! It still drives spikes of terror into your heart to confront my aspects, doesn’t it? Very good.” Erebus took a deep breath, as if to savor the moment, then they heard loud thunder from outside the cave.

  “Ah, as I foresaw: he’s here. I’ll leave you be, then.” He separated from Seika, and she immediately tried to hack him with her sword again, but all she cut was the darkness around her. His sickening laugh filled the cave and grew distant.

  “Here’s my declaration for you, child of Zeus: We will destroy you! The children of my beloved and I will make certain that you won’t bring forth the abomination, and we won’t even have to lift a finger against you ourselves! Prepare yourself!”

  The darkness withdrew, just in time for Jove to enter, engulfed in lightning. Seika could see the rage in his eyes but also fear and uncertainty as he looked around, scanning for the man who just left while his left hand clutched a small medallion he wore around his neck.

  “I’m sorry it took me so long to realize something was off. He’s gone?”

  Seika nodded and fell to her knees, taking a long, deep breath. Jove stepped towards her and put a hand on her shoulder.

  “…did you know?” Seika asked after gathering her wits. The question was burning on her lips, and she wouldn’t keep it inside.

  “Know what?”

  “That he’s the one behind the Shadows.”

  “Of course. He spreads them across multiple worlds, attacking people. The ones who dwell in darkness and their children are ardent believers in multiple prophesies and try to prevent others from occurring, which requires them to murder a certain set of people who are key parts of them, so it’s probably because of one of those that he targeted you.”

  “…why didn’t you tell me?” Seika looked up at him, and he even appeared apologetic.

  “…what would a fourteen-year-old girl have done with the knowledge that the primordial darkness Scotus was after her life?”

  Seika bit her lower lip and didn’t answer, so Jove continued.

  “Once we saved you, I felt Minerva urging me to let her be born. She wanted to protect you. I felt like lending you her power was good enough, and it gave her an opportunity to have a world to grow up in, too.”

  Seika looked to the side, a hand on her heart. It was still beating insanely fast, only slowly letting up after the source of her panic attack had left.

  At least I have a heart that can beat like this again. If it weren’t for your help, partner, then…

  Seika shook the thought off before she faced Jove again.

  “I don’t like that you kept me in the dark. But what’s done is done. Let’s leave… and then we can talk about what we’re going to do about this.”

  As they left the cave, Pallas came running.

  “Uncle, Minerva! I heard a commotion! Is everything alright?”

  Seika gave the blue-haired woman a tired smile in response while Jove looked at her in contemplation.

  “You are still keeping your vow of secrecy involving the circumstances surrounding Minerva?” he asked her, and she nodded with a serious expression.

  “Of course, uncle! I wouldn’t go against my dear cousin, and I would especially never go against you.”

  “Good,” Jove sighed and began his explanation.

  ***

  “Scotus himself is after Seika?” Pallas asked in a hushed voice. “Why?!”

  “No one knows. One of the prophecies he’s so certain will become reality if he doesn’t interfere, most likely. It appears our dear Seika here is a key person in it.”

  Pallas visibly gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, then she looked at Seika and put a hand on her shoulder.

  “I’m so sorry that this is happening to you. I swear I will do my best to protect you!”

  “Thank you,” Seika smiled, putting a hand on Pallas’ own and giving it a little squeeze She then looked at Jove again, specifically at the medallion he clutched earlier.

  “What is that, anyway?” she asked as she looked at the item’s engravings. There were hands on it, dozens of them in fact. The embossed pattern filled the entire surface of the medallion.

  “Insurance. A way to call a powerful ally if I’m ever faced with someone who can overpower me,” Jove admitted.

  “What separates me from my father is that I didn’t go back on my word and paid my dues to my allies after my rebellion. Earnest gratitude is a sturdier foundation for a throne than fear.”

  “Scotus did hint at that. Said you’re afraid of him and his ‘beloved’.”

  “That about sums it up, yes. Being king doesn’t mean that I’m all-powerful. It just means I have the right connections and the wisdom to use them. However…”

  Jove stopped and furrowed his brow as he looked at Seika.

  “It’s not so much that I’m afraid. I am in awe. Scotus and Nox are the darkness and night themselves. They are forces of nature and I’d have to tread very carefully if I were to confront them.”

  Seika nodded after hearing his explanation, then they passed through one of the larger towns which was the closest to Capitolium, and they heard a commotion ahead.

  “What’s happening?” Seika asked as they approached a crowd of people, lost in heated debate.

  “Nothing but a baseless rumor, I tell you! It has to be, she’s our princess after all!” she heard a man shout.

  “But Fama said…” a woman started.

  “Fama is a gossip. Don’t pay it too much mind,” an older woman cut her off.

  “Still, the thought of one of our gods freezing in place and vomiting at the sight of a mere chimera… it disgusts me.”

  Seika felt her blood freeze in her veins. She closed her eyes to quickly evaluate her inner power and felt it fluctuating.

  “This is it…” she whispered, and her companions looked at her quizzically.

  “He said he wasn’t going to attack me directly, but that him and his allies will destroy me. They’re using the humans of this world against me.”

  Jove looked towards the gathered crowd of people who were too busy making the rumor mill turn to even notice the three gods in their midst. He furrowed his brow deeply.

  “That’s a problem.”