Hera grinned as she ran her hand through the viewing pool, distorting the images there. She’d show Zeus who was boss, the best way she knew how: underhanded manipulation.
It’d been only too easy to convince Eros to enchant the poor woman. And to have her fuck a monster, well...Hera laughed out loud, disturbing the peacocks wandering around the white marble room.
A princess here, a demi-goddess there, she was sick of it. No man ignored her like that, even if he was king of the gods. Though she couldn’t attack him directly, her lips curled into a sly smile, she could certainly undermine the manhood of his champion. The brawny mortal would never see it coming, and Zeus would never be able to prove her part in it.
Hera dipped a slender finger into a pot of honey and licked it off slowly, savoring the weight and sweetness.
The perfect plan.
*~*~*
Aegina hobbled over to the side of the road, wincing whenever she put weight on her left foot. She unfastened her sandal and pulled it off, grimacing at the size of the blisters. Her wavy dark coffee tresses were plastered to her olive skin, adhering to the sheen of sweat the hot afternoon sun had created. Ageina hated her hair, always thought it looked too much like mud.
Perhaps going adventuring wasn’t such a good idea after all. But it was too late for that now. Aegina wasn’t the type of woman to be wishy-washy. No, she’d made her decision and was going to stick with it.
Still, it didn’t make her throat less parched or her blistering feet less sore. She nursed her foot for another few minutes before gingerly setting it down on the compressed dirt road and continuing onward.
The sun was only about a quarter past its peak when Aegina finally reached Berora. Not having a horse, the journey had forced her to spend her money on a night at a roadside inn. Inn, she snorted, more like a hovel. She raised her wine flask to her mouth and swallowed a few drops of the sweet drink. Both her flask and her purse were running dry.
Aegina ducked into the first inn she came to; resting just on the outskirts of the city, it was a small building with a humble sign depicting a satyr with a wine bottle. The inside of the cramped room was dim and clouded with the smoke from burning herbs. The smell of a roasting pig pervaded the atmosphere and caused Aegina’s stomach to growl menacingly.
The innkeeper raised an eyebrow at her entrance. He was used to visitors coming at all times of the day, and usually pretty young women were accompanied by large entourages of servants or family. The girl sat down at a rough wooden table and he made his way over with a hearty grin, but on closer evaluation of her bedraggled and dusty appearance, it quickly faded.
“What can I do for you?” he asked, clearly feigning politeness.
Aegina responded with a tired but grateful smile. “A cup of wine?”
The innkeeper nodded curtly and returned promptly, snatching up the coins she set down on the table.
She sipped the cool liquid, feeling the suspicious eyes of the innkeeper on her back. Aegina waved him over when her cup was empty. “Excuse me,” she asked as he began to draw away, “do you know if there are any households looking for a cook?”
The thick lips of the innkeeper pursed in thought. “There are some larger houses if you go down the road a bit and turn left onto the wide road there. But I’ll warn you, they usually like to have a father’s permission.”
When Aegina’s eyes widened the older man knew she wasn’t expecting that.
“Well, my husband has given me permission,” she announced boldly, trying to quell the nervous butterflies in her stomach. “We’re farmers, and, well, the gods haven’t been too kind this season.”
It was a flat out lie and he knew that. But still, looking into her dark doe eyes filled with determination, he felt a strange need to help her. The old man sighed and straightened his tunic.
“Tell you what, lady. If night is falling and you’ve not yet found a job, seek a woman named Pythia. Everyone around here knows who she is. She will let you spend the night, but think carefully about your husband before accepting work from her. If I were you, I’d turn around and go back to the farm right now.”
Aegina smiled at him and he found that he couldn’t help but smile back. “I appreciate your concern, but I don’t think I can go back.”
“You say that now missy, but..” He just shook his head. “Pythia will help you if you need it. Tell her that Huros sent ya.”
Aegina scooped up her belongings and clasped his large hand in her small ones. “Thank you Mister Huros, I won’t forget this kindness.”
After a quick stop at a town well to straighten her hair and wash the dust off her face, Aegina set off with a brisk step and high hopes of finding a job.
However, with the sun hanging low in the sky, and having stopped at every house on the street Huros suggested, Aegina’s hopes were flagging. She’d received a couple offers, but without having her husband there to give consent in person, the households had been forced to turn her away. Aegina glanced at a sundial as she made her way through the garden behind the last house. The sun would be setting within an hour.
Dejectedly, Aegina made her way back onto the main street, wondering what she was going to do if she couldn’t find a job. A servant at one of the houses had given her some dinner while they chatted, so her stomach wasn’t growling anymore, but, she sighed, that was the least of her worries. She could go to that woman Huros had mentioned, but something in the way he said her name made her wonder if that was a good idea.
She kicked at the dust along the side of the road, watching the merchants roll down shades and close their doors for the night.
She had nowhere to stay, no job, no money...
Pythia was her only option it seemed.
Doing her best impression of a lost and innocent maiden, Aegina wandered over to one of the shop owners. When she asked about Pythia, the man looked shocked, but gave her directions anyway. His strange reaction made Aegina even more nervous about her decision to seek the woman’s help. The words “nowhere else to go” chanted themselves in her head as she made her way towards Pythia’s residence.
*~*~*
Eros’s long, tan body lay stretched out and naked on the white silk sheets covering Hera’s bed.
“So, Hera, where’s my payment?”
Hera smiled coyly, dark eyelashes fluttering against smooth pale cheeks.
“Whatever are you talking about?”
The god of love sat up, wings flexing. “You know I love a bit of mischief, but I’m not about to anger Zeus without some sort of...compensation.”
“Angering Zeus? I’d never ask you to do something like that dear Eros.” Hera lifted the hem of her dress, showing off a long milky white leg as she climbed on to the bed. Eros leaned close to her, breathing in the scent of her skin.
“Lovely Hera, I shot an arrow into the heart of the wife of Tyre of Sena.” His tongue flicked out tasting the flesh of her collar bone and traveling up her neck and along her jaw line.
Hera sucked her breath in as his hand came up to cup her breast.
