Artemis...
On the day of Marcus’s fight, she decided to join Selene in supporting him, if only to try and understand why she was so taken by him.
Although, truth be told, she wanted to understand Marcus a little better as well. For a son of Hestia, he was capable of excessive levels of violence, much unlike his mother’s caring and loving nature.
Perhaps she was just yet to thoroughly see that side of him, but on a fundamental level, Marcus scared her.
Yet when looking at Selene, she doesn’t seem to harbor any level of fear or mistrust of him.
Maybe she was simply being naive, or maybe Artemis was just looking for reasons to justify her distaste for the man.
Although, the more she thought about it, the more she felt herself slowly turning into her handmaiden Upis.
Upis seemed to share a similar distaste for Adrianos back when she had first met him and was vehemently against their relationship. She would call him a brute, a fool, and any other manner of names…
Artemis then placed her fingers against her head and began rubbing her temples as she groaned, “Oh no…”
Selene, who was busy watching the current match with Heimdall play out, turned to look at her and asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
Dejected, Artemis looked up at her daughter and said, “I’m turning into Upis…”
Selene frowned and looked confused as she replied, “What are you talking about?”
“I was thinking about trying not to be so judgmental towards Marcus, because you care about him. I was thinking that he’s a brutish and violent fool of a man, but then...Then I remembered that my handmaiden Upis used to say the same thing about Adrianos.”
Selene sighed as she said, “Mother, you are overthinking things. You don’t need to try so hard, so just relax.”
“Hmm...alright then. I’ll try my best not to stress out over this too much,” she said.
As they both went quiet to watch the fight play out, Selene’s expression slowly changed as she must have come up with an idea.
“Actually, I met Upis,” She said, to which Artemis turned her head around suddenly and stared at her.
“You met her?! You mean that…she is still alive?!” Artemis asked frantically.
“Uh...yes. Upis was the one who told me that you were my mother in the first place. I thought you knew that she was alive,” Selene said.
“N-no…but I am relieved to hear she is still alright. Its been a while since I have seen her. Perhaps I should pay her a visit,” she said with slight smile.
“By the way, I have to wonder about something. What was your mother like?” Selene asked her.
Artemis blinked in surprise as it was the first time in a very very long time that anyone had ever asked about her mother.
“My mother…? Well, my mother’s name was Leto, but I don’t know where she is now or if she is even still alive,” Artemis replied.
“You don’t? When was the last time you saw her?”
She was about to answer her but paused as a wave of emotions washed over her and felt it too difficult to speak.
Sensing her discomfort, Selene said, “Are you okay? If its too painful for you to talk about then you don’t have to.”
Hearing her say that to comfort Artemis made her break her silence as she shook her head and replied, “No. No, its alright…I should talk about it with you at the very least, otherwise I’ll never be able to talk about it with anyone.”
She then took in a deep breath as she calmed herself.
She hadn’t talked about the times back then with anyone, not even Adrianos.
Especially not since he…
No! No, I cannot think about that… What he did back then doesn’t matter anymore.
“The last time I saw my mother Leto was a little more than fifty years ago, before I came to this world.”
Selene’s eyes widened as she said, “Oh that’s right! I had forgotten that you aren’t from this world. You are from Terra right?”
Artemis nodded as she continued, “I am, but not just me. Adrian was also from Terra, which means that despite being born and raised in Erebus, you are a god of Terra.”
Selene waved her hands in front of her dismissively as she said, “Please don’t refer to me as a god. I’m still not used to that yet.”
“Alright alright, but back to what I was saying. Before I came to this world, Adrian and I were living in Terra together. My mother Leto was there as well and happily welcomed him as a member of our family. Oh, and if you were on Terra then you would be excited to know your grandfather was Zeus. Zeus was the king of the Greek pantheon of gods on Terra. He would have ecstatic to find out I have a daughter.”
As Selene listened to her recount the stories of her family and learn about Terra, she smiled happily as she paid attention to every word.
“Although, the more I think about it, the more I realize that Zeus would be rather interested in Marcus too,” she said.
Selene tilted her head in confusion as she asked, “Why’s that?”
“Along with being king of the gods among the Greek pantheon, he was also lord of the skies. He commanded the weather and was famous for being a god of storms and lightning. With lighting being one of Marcus’s forms of magic, I would be shocked if Zeus didn’t take interest in him. Not to mention that Hestia had taken a vow of celibacy after witnessing the degeneracy of the other gods.”
“Was her vow of celibacy that significant?” she asked.
Artemis let out a sigh of exasperation as she said, “The less you know about the degeneracy of the Greek pantheon the better, believe me. Upis went out of her way to make sure I didn’t follow suit which is why you are my only child.”
Selene wisely decided not to engage in that topic, but instead asked, “What about Father? You told me before that he was a demon, but also that he used to be human before. How did the two of you meet?”
When being asked that question, Artemis thought back to that time fondly until she stifled a laugh.
“What? What’s so funny?”
Artemis covered her mouth to try and hide her smile as she said, “Well…when we met, my handmaidens were assisting me with bathing in the stream when he showed up.”
Hearing that, Selene gave her a grossed out expression as she replied, “You were taking a bath outside. Did you not have your own bathrooms back then?”
“W-well we did, but…”
Selene continued staring at her weirdly, as if the thought of bathing in a stream were the behavior of some exhibitionist.
“Anyways! While that was happening, Adrian tripped over a tree root and fell down into the stream I was using to clean myself. As he was standing up to try and return to where he fell from, he looked up at me and feinted from fear on the spot.”
Selene chuckled as she asked, “My father was afraid of naked women?”
“No, not really. The reason he feinted was because Upis had spread a story around about a hunter named Actaeon who had tried to spy on me while I was bathing, and had died in the process. The story went that I became wrathful and turned him into a stag, sent my wolves upon him, and tore him apart. In reality, he hit his head on a stone when he fell and died instantly. Adrian heard that story and feared for his life that he was going to be torn apart for accidentally seeing me naked.”
Selene struggled in vain to stop herself from laughing as she said, “Okay...that is kind of funny.”
“That must have been...over thirty thousand years ago,” Artemis mused and Selene stood in stunned silence.
“If...if it really had been that long ago since you met then what took you so long to have me? Why did you wait so many tens of thousands of years to have a child?” Selene asked.
“Well…the circumstances back then were very complicated. I only knew your father as a human for a handful of decades before he entered his transformation into a king of hell. That transformation process lasted until just over a century ago.”
“You...waited for him for all those years until the process was over and he had come back to you?”
Artemis nodded and said, “I did, and I do not regret the time I spent waiting, even if it was filled with loneliness and pain. I would even wait ten thousand more years if it meant he could come back to me.”
Selene went quiet as she contemplated her words until she said, “He didn’t tell me much about you, or tell me your name. I only knew that I had a mom and was waiting for her to come back to us. However, he did tell me that he loved you very much.”
“I’m sure he would be very proud of the woman you have grown up to be,” Artemis said, with feelings of love attached to every word for her beloved daughter.
Fayebel…
Today was her time to shine!
It was her second match of the bracket but it was just as important for the first. She had hoped to win her first match with only Master Ranni’s teachings to impress her, but ended up relying on her magic anyways. This time she won’t hold back so much and will overpower her enemy!
This time she was going to fight against the Torrs, the eldest prince of the Orc Kingdom.
He was a renown warrior, not just among his kingdom, but across the world and in New Alfheim as well.
If she could manage to take him down then it would bring honor to her family’s house and to New Alfheim as a whole!
However…if she did win this fight, then it would mean she would win the bet she had made with her brother.
If she lost, then she would have to train Thalia in swordsmanship.
It sucked for her because she didn’t want to lose the fight, but she also wanted to be like Master Ranni before her and pass on what she knew to her own student. It would be an amazing honor to take on a student, especially when its the sister of someone as incredible as Marcus Wright.
If she threw the fight or surrendered to lose the bet then it would make her look like a coward.
She grumbled as she waited in silence for the announcer to call for her to arrive for the fight.
Fayebel would just have to grin and bear it and fight as hard as possible anyways. Even if she won the bet, maybe she could still teach Thalia anyways.
“Hmm...that could work,” she said aloud.
Just as she thought she had it all figured out, she heard a knock at the door of the waiting room and turned around to see who it was.
“Come in,” she said and the door opened to reveal someone she was not expecting at all.
In the doorway was Frosk, the Champion of Forrosa.
Her mouth fell open in shock at the sight of him.
“F-F-Frosk...w-what are you doing here?” she stammered.
“I uh…I came by because I wanted to talk with you,” he said as he stepped inside and noticed the sword Gurthang on his back.
Her eyes narrowed as she asked, “Why do you have Gurthang with you?”
He winced at the harsh tone in her voice and replied, “That’s part of the reason why I want to talk to you. Will you have time to spare after your fight to have a conversation with me?”
She raised her eyebrows as she contemplated what he could possibly have to say to her and decided that there was no harm in it as she answered, “I guess so. What do you want to talk about, aside from the sword of course.”
“I think its better that you wait until your fight is over before we speak, otherwise it could end up distracting you,” he said, which made sense to her.
She sighed and said, “If its so important that it could end up having that great of an effect on my performance in battle, then I’ll heed it. Thank you for being considerate of that.”
With those last few words, the announcer’s voice called for her to appear and she stood up to leave.
“I’ll be waiting for you at the entrance to the arena,” he said with a shockingly gentle tone.
“Alright then. I will meet you there,” she replied as she passed him by and started walking down the hallway to her fight.
When she had turned her back to him, he said to her, “I wish you luck in your fight Fayebel.”
The tone of voice in his words of encouragement seemed so genuine that it caused her to pause as she turned around to look at him.
“Uh…thank you,” she said back and was left wondering what it was he had to say to her before she arrived on the arena floor.