Medusa: Fate's Game Ch. 15

"I'll explain later." He looked her up and down with a turn of his head, before he released one of his hands and placed it against the rock. "You have lovely legs."

She burst into tears. He shouldn't be making jokes! But even as she reached out and wrapped her arms around his shoulders until he toppled over, she laughed. Just a word, and the Tartarus scenery was forgotten, if only for a beautiful minute.

"Forget the legs! They don't matter. We... this is Tartarus! You can't be here, we can't escape! I don't—"

He stood up, with her in his arms. She squealed and held on, and blinked at the masked man as she squirmed for a second. He held her weight, hand in the small of her back, while his other arm held her dangling legs. Much as she tried to ignore them, she raised her feet and looked at her toes. She had toes.

But the death screams and low groans of Tartarus yanked her back to the present. She leaned into Darian's neck — mask be damned, she needed to hold him — and planted a kiss on the back of his jaw where the mask did not reach.

"What're we going to do?" she said.

Darian sighed. She felt it in his chest, felt the tension in his muscles release, felt the weight fall from his shoulders. Her poor Darian. What happened to him when she died?

And then they were flying. As casually as Athena had done it, Darian started to float upward. Whatever protective barrier he was emitting to keep the horribleness of Tartarus at bay held, and she hugged her little warrior tight as they ascended.

She looked down at the endless world of heat and rock and pain beneath her. The giant eye was staring up at them, the swirling colors of its iris shifting as she went higher. What had happened here? The great Titan war of so long ago, and they were now locked in this endless realm beneath the surface of the afterlife? Forever a part of the landscape? She shuddered and hugged Darian tighter. She could barely handle fifteen minutes of it.

Higher and higher, the two rose above the burning fumes, scalding heat waves, and into the hole above. Once through the hole, the misery of Tartarus was blocked, contained by its small size. Big enough for two people to come up through though, and Darian hugged her tight as he slipped through it and landed in the cave.

"Medusa!"

"Otrera!"

As Darian set her feet upon the cave floor, she reached down and scooped up the small woman in her arms.

"Shit you're tall."

"I was taller before."

"Yeah but it's different with legs," Otrera said. Once Medusa put her down, she circled around her, and smiled once she got back to the front. "Wow, I like your... everything."

Medusa raised her head a bit, and managed a tiny grin at Otrera. She saw hunger in her eyes! ... eyes!

"What color are my eyes?"

"Hmm? Oh, I suppose you never got to see them. They're a soft brown, like your hair."

She nodded. The memory was so buried, digging it up got her a haze of a thing she couldn't call a memory anymore. But she did take the time to look at her hands, at her hips and legs. And now that she had a moment to relax, she looked at her hair in her hands, and combed it. Not the same, not the same as snake hair. It didn't comb her fingers back.

"How long were you in there?" Otrera said.

"Only a moment. I was in a river of people for many hours before Athena found me." A bit longer than a moment. Enough to feel what it was like to have her eyes boil, and her lungs burn. For her ghost body to heal it in only seconds, and force her to feel it again. She smiled, and forced down the wrenching of her insides.

And Darian, she couldn't read his expression, tell what he was looking at, or anything! Not with that mask on.

"Thank you both," she said, and she took Otrera's hands and kissed them. But Darian, now that they were all standing in the dark cave, outside of Tartarus, she had a moment to lean down, and hug the small man. Hug him hug him hug him until he started squirming. And then she hugged him some more.

Otrera laughed, and laughed louder when Medusa picked Darian up, so she could hug him with all her might, and bury her face in his neck.

He was reluctant to return it, she could tell. Probably afraid his mask would offend her. The irony. She hugged him until he actively started pushing against her shoulders.

"It'd be the first night we weren't together," he said, "so... I had to get you back. Couldn't have that."

She shook her head, and buried the man into her bosom. Her tears on her cheeks, hard mask against her chiton, but she didn't care.

"But... what do we do now?" she said. "And the mask? Is that the mask Andromeda had?"

Darian breathed into her, and butterflies filled her stomach as she felt her man relax once more. The hard muscles of his body had tensed again, but as she ran her fingers along his arms, she felt them soften. Her poor Darian.

"We walk out." Otrera walked ahead, and as the three of them entered the cave's mouth, Medusa gasped.

Athena was chained to the wall, and dripping silver. Silver? She looked like she'd been mauled by a lion, and left to rot. Exhausted, panting, and when the goddess looked at the three of them, her scowl hid it all, replaced with blatant hate.

"... Athena," Medusa said.

Athena looked away, and spit on the cave floor.

Until Darian pointed his palm at her. Athena groaned in pain, and struggled with something invisible that forced her head to look at them. She tried to close her eyes, but started coughing up silver as Darian squeezed his hand on air. He was hurting her, without even touching her.

"Darian! Please... stop."

"She wanted you to suffer! Suffer for no reason, no reason at all. She's a vain, shallow, vile creature." Venom dripped from his words. "Look at her Athena, look at her!" Darian squeezed again, and Athena coughed another splash of silver that gushed over her chiton. "You'll never be as good as her."

"Darian, please, enough." Medusa put out her hand, and wrested it upon her love's. "This... this won't... this isn't worth it. Please stop, and let her go?"

Darian growled, and with the mask giving him a weird, booming voice, it was enough to make her draw her hand back. But after a moment's hesitation, the man lowered his hand, and gave a tiny wave of his fingers. The chains around Athena's wrist opened, and the goddess fell to her knees.

"I don't know what... what I could have done to offend you, Athena. But... please... no more. I don't want to hurt people anymore. And... and I don't want you to hurt me." She got down on her knees in front of the kneeling goddess, and sighed.

"Of course you wouldn't." She coughed a splatter of silver onto the stone before her, and raked her fingernails across it as she tried to get up. "Naive child."

"... you hate me so much?"

"You are a blight upon my existence."

"But why?"

Again Athena tried to get up, but a coughing fit tore her down and sent her back to the cavern floor.

"You... do not deserve... to have the gifts you have. Your words... the resonance... you did nothing to earn them."

"My words..."

Athena shook her head and looked to the side. She didn't want to tell her. She didn't even want to look at her.

Medusa reached out, but when Athena hissed something horrible, she drew her hand back, and sighed.

"And my curse?"

The bleeding goddess laughed, and gave her one last smirk before lowering her head. "Your anchor is cursed. Only through rebirth and a new anchor would you be free of it."

So much hate, for something she didn't even understand. Shudders rippled through her, and as the goddess collapsed, Medusa looked up to her love. How could someone hate her so much, not for being the gorgon, but for her words?

Darian put out his hand for her, and she took it. Wiping a tear away, she got back to her feet, and squeezed Darian's hand as tight as she could. She was so weak now compared to how she used to be, just human. Ghost, really. She could feel her heart pumping, her breath in her lungs, and she felt every wound from Tartarus as if it'd been real, only to heal them in seconds. The afterlife was peculiar indeed.

She started walking, but didn't get far. Staring at her feet, she forgot how to use them again, and fell forward, only for Darian to catch her by the shoulder and help stand her upright.

"Not going to ask her to reverse your curse?" Otrera said. "Or, you know, force her to."

Medusa looked to Darian, and the man looked back to her. The mask covered his expression, but the squeeze on her fingers said plenty.

"You heard her. It can't be undone." Medusa shook her head, and held onto Darian's hand as they started walking again. "And even if she was lying, and we forced her to cure it. She would find a way to subvert it, to get revenge again." Revenge for what, should could not fathom. "And... it is best if we just... let her be."

The Amazon stepped ahead of her a little and looked back at her as she walked. "Let her be? She ruined your life, and now she tried to ruin your afterlife. Killing her is a bad idea, but—"

"Please, Otrera, let it go."

The Amazon fell to silence, blinking at her with blatant shock on her face. Why didn't she understand? Why didn't any of them understand? Pain begets pain; the only option that made sense was forgiveness. If Darian made an enemy of all the gods today, then he would have to keep his mask purely to defend himself, and the more she looked at it, the more she did not want that. With every step her love took, the more she could feel the hate radiate off of him.

"You sure you want to be a snake again?" Darian said at last.

"... do... do you—"

"You know I love you either way, Medusa." Another squeeze on her hand. "I wanted to get your legs back for you, not for me."

She looked down at her legs. Long, beautiful, curvy legs that filled her chiton wonderfully. She wiggled her toes, and smiled. Even the sensation of a proper tongue inside her mouth, without fangs curled back into her cheeks, was foreign to her. But, as she pulled her brown hair out in front of her, and played with the soft folds of its draping length, she shook her head.

"I just wanted to not be hated anymore. The legs, they... they're not important."

Darian squeezed her hand all the more, and kept walking. Otrera nodded, but she cast glances back at Medusa as they walked. The Amazon didn't believe her, and perhaps she was right. But Medusa gave her a smile, and squeezed Darian's hand all the more as they walked out of the canyon, past the tortured, and onto the flower-covered hills back in the warm sun.

Once they were upon the crest of the hill that separated the canyon from the lovely village of flowers, a sharp light shot past them. They covered their eyes and looked up as Athena sped by, glowing white, and as the goddess flew over, she looked back and frowned at them. Drawing a hand over her face, her golden mask reappeared, and she flew on toward the glowing light in the distance.

The townsfolk didn't seem to care. They didn't really seem to care about anything, Medusa thought, as they approached the buildings and people. Last time Athena had simply flown her over the town, but this time, she was going to walk through it, and see what it was like to live in the Asphodel Meadows.

A few stumbles, a few trips, but she got the hang of feet again, and she giggled at the sensation of grass on her toes. And once they were down the rolling hill, she jumped. A lot. Otrera had a grimace on her face, but Medusa sighed at her and patted her hand.

"I'm fine Otrera, really. For now I have my old body back; see-through, but back! I'll enjoy it while I can."

The Amazon didn't seem convinced, but she wouldn't understand. And Darian, he kept glancing at her, and then at the ghosts they walked past. Not a one of them gave Medusa a second glance; she looked completely normal. And that, she couldn't deny, was a great feeling.

She looked down at the few white flowers in her path, and the splendid green before them. The perfect rolling hills that surrounded the beautiful city were covered in flowers, but the city streets were soft, lovely grass that tickled her skin, and made her giggle with almost every step. The sun hadn't moved since Athena had flown her over the buildings. Did the sun not set here? Or—

"Medusa!"

Everyone froze. Medusa started to tremble, and she squeezed Darian's hand as the voice dug through her mind, tore up the rock and dirt, and lifted a haze of memories.

"... Mom?"

She turned around, but her feet dragged like chains were tied to them. Darian let go of her hand so she could turn, and took a smell step back along with Otrera to give her room. She didn't want room! She didn't know how to deal with this.

"Medusa." A lovely woman stood in front of her, tall like her, with plenty of soft brown hair tied into a beautiful array of knots. She had such a soft face, and a soft smile, and as she came closer, Medusa could see she had soft gaze.

"Mom, I... I don't..."

"Been a long time," she said. The beautiful woman took her hands, and held them to her chest. "Your father and I decided to wait for you, no matter how long it took."

"Dad... dad is here?"

"Course I'm here."

A man she barely recognized came out to join them, tall like his wife. Short brown hair, long beard, a thin body. He came up to her, and stood beside the lovely woman while he smiled at her.

"I... I... you... used to bake bread. You... used to work... money things..." Her eyes welled with tears, and the two strangers in front of her started to blur.

But she knew them. They weren't strangers. She knew them!

"My dear, it's been so long, it's only natural. We wanted to come to your island after what happened, but no one would take us." Her mom squeezed her hands tighter, and kissed her knuckles. "But you're here now, and it is a lovely place. We're so glad you're here."

"I—"

Her dad swooped in, and hugged them, both of them. His long arms pulled them both to his chest, and the skinny man showed his strength as he crushed them to his body.

"Dad!"

The words came back so naturally. Dad, Mom, without even thinking about it she was using them again, and as her dad hugged her tight, she started crying. Sobs took her, loud and whining, and she didn't care. She buried her face in his chest, squeezed on his tunic, and let his clothes dry her tears as she hugged him.

"You don't... care about... what happened?" she said.

Her mom touched her head, combed her hair, and squeezed her other hand again. "We know our daughter. Athena's punishment was unjust. If anything, you should have been—"

"No, let's not talk about it." Medusa pushed herself away — they even smelled like her parents — and forced herself to breathe deep until the sobbing stopped. "I... I can't stay."

"What? But my dear, it's—"

"I can't! I can't I..." She looked at Darian. The mask was doing things to him, things he may not have realized. She saw it in how he walked, how he looked around, how he raised his hand when dealing with Athena. It had to go, now. "I wish I could stay, but I can't leave him."

Darian stepped forward, and approached the two. They took the fact he was wearing a scary mask well; in fact, none of the ghosts really seemed to notice the mask, or cared.

"It's true," he said. "I can't leave her. I'd like to say something valiant and honorable, like she should stay here, be at peace, or something. But... no, she shouldn't have died, and... and I can't live without her."

It was a horrible way to meet her parents, she realized. Her poor Darian must have been summoning every bit of normalcy he could to talk like that, with the mask on, with them both in the afterlife, with Athena's blood splattered over the entrance to Tartarus.

"You... love her?" her mom said.

"With every last scrap of what I have to give her."

Her mom jumped and clapped a few times in quick succession. Medusa blushed, both for Darian's rather poetic declaration, and her mom's outburst.

"I don't know who you are, and we've been here so many decades, I suppose it doesn't matter much. But, if you loved her while she was alive, after what Athena did to her? You're a greater man than most." Her dad stuck out his hand, and smiled. He had a soft face too.

Darian took it, shook it, and when he glanced Medusa's way with a little turn of his head, he sighed. Her dad's words probably bounced off of him; her poor Darian could never think of himself that way, not really. Better than other people, and worse than other people at the same time.

"Please, my daughter, can't you stay for a little while? We can talk. You can tell me about your friends. You can—"

Medusa raised her hand, cutting off of her mom before she leaned back in to hug her again.

"I'm sorry, I can't. We have to leave, my friends can't stay. And Darian, he... he's doing so much for me, and..." She started to tear up as she looked at the man, and he looked away as her eyes caught the white glowing holes of his mask. Couldn't look her in the eye. She had to get him home where she could take care of him.

She forced down her smile. Darian would have yelled at her, if she said that out loud. He came to rescue her, not the other way around. But he couldn't get upset if she only thought it.

Her mom and dad hugged her again. Tighter, tight enough she had trouble breathing. They were both tall like her, and she buried her face in their shoulders as she cried some more. Each time she touched them, memories ripped her apart and forced the sobs out of her, until she was sure she'd soaked their chitons in salt. The shortest reunion ever, and she wanted to indulge, wanted to talk more, wanted to sit down and drink — whatever it was ghosts drank — and tell them about her life.

One glance at Darian was enough to steel her resolve.

"I have to go."

"Please... please be careful? I don't know what's going on with the gods, Athena, or... just... please be careful. We'll wait and—"

"Wait?"

They nodded. "Yes dear. In the Asphodel Meadows, it's complete bliss, but bliss is only blissful for so long. When people are done, they can be reborn whenever they wish."

"Then don't stay! Don't stay if you don't want to." She forced herself to arm's length and gave her best big girl smile. "Only stay as long as you want. But it could be a long, long time before I'm back. And... I..." I don't know if I'll be coming to the Asphodel Meadows. "I'll be fine. Please, only stay as long as you enjoy it here. I'm a big girl."

"... if you're sure Medusa." Her father hooked his arm around her mother, and offered her a weak smile. "We have enjoyed it here, but... it has been a long time."

"Then please, do whatever makes you happy. I'll be fine." She returned his smile, and started to take more steps back. "I've got to go now."

"Good luck Medusa." Her mom took half a step forward before she forced her foot back. "I... I love you. I know it's been a long time, so long, but know we'll always love you."

Her dad nodded, and hugged her mom her a little tighter as he gave a small, heavy wave of his fingers.

"I love you too! I still remember the smell of bread, I still..." Choking more sobs, she waved and started walking backward. A few more waves, and few more sobs, she kept walking, until she turned around.

Otrera and Darian fell in on her sides, and Darian took her hand. She squeezed it, and leaned forward as her tears fell down.

"Aeryn said people sort of fade in and out here, come and go, whatever lets people have some peace or joy with who they meet," Otrera said. "I met some of my old battle sisters. Cried like a baby."

"Really?" she said.

"No. Well, a little. Not like you, big baby." The Amazon smiled at her, and adjusted her bow on her shoulder. Since when did Otrera smile like that?

As she looked back over her shoulder, she couldn't help but spin around again and wave to her parents. Her parents! Gods, her actual parents. A hundred years was too long. And as she did, they returned it, her mother jumping up and down too.