Never before have I observed my acquaintance to be so much determined to learn something new, as she was when learning the stasis formulae. But given that it was exactly this spell that prevented her from having a decent social interaction with other humans, tightly narrowing her social circles, her zeal was unsurprising. And so were her daughters, I cannot say that I ever saw snakes looking so driven.
At this point, I was also forced to, reveal my ability to use the Olympian form of magic or at least its variation I developed for myself, in order to show to my future senior coworker, that I was no slacker and had the ability to perform my future work. This might have proven to be a mistake though as it seemed. Persephone was stunned by it for a mere moment, after which madness appeared in her eyes, and within milliseconds she was upon me, probing me from all sides. How could I have forgotten that she was the exact same mad scientist as Schugel, under her slightly awkward, but otherwise kind and professional exterior?
Could she be a wolf in sheep's clothing? Nevertheless, somehow I managed to survive the sudden scientific revelation Persephone underwent.
The evening before, the venture into Helicarnassus was planned, Medusa sought me out under the pretense of needing to tell me something. However, if she wanted to talk, she should probably go ahead and start talking. Alas, I was able to discern that whatever she wanted to talk about, was quite a heavy topic for her to share. I suspected that might be something about the missing parts of her past, she still had to share with me.
And after a few heavy moments, share she did. She told me how exactly she became what she was now. How she was bothered, by an impossibly handsome man, and how he refused to give up when she told him that she was not interested slightest in his advances. How in her desperation she devised a plan to make him stop bothering he. And how she made him so drunk, that he fell flat on his face, while standing to make some grand gesture, only to pin poor Medusa beneath him. How she desperately tried to free herself from beneath the drunkard, begging her goddess Athena to save her life, only for Athena to curse her forever.
Given Athena's reputation and certified stupidity, it was not hard to conclude what that idiotic god-pretender might have mistaken Medusa's futile attempt to free herself, for. Though, in some twisted sense, Athena using the non-working uplifting formulae on Medusa did help her to get from under the dunkard, since it increased her strength. Alas, that would be giving Athena too much credit, for a side effect of otherwise worse fate.
Alas, the visit to the city proper, the following day, turned out to be quite an enlightening trip. The locals seem to be using quite interesting kinds of coins, portraying none other than Medusa. Not my acquaintance, but rather Medusa the gorgon, whose legend was older than myself, given my mother, in this life, mentioned the supposed hero who killed the monster, with the guidance of Athena.
Though my own encounters with the god-pretender left me wondering, whether the retelling of the legend was nothing else but propaganda since Athena from the legend was portrayed with intellect and foresight, the real individual was not possessed.
Needless to say, when leaving the city, after a full day of exploration, my close acquaintance, Medusa, was in high spirits, the last bits of visible stress melting away. As it seemed, she finally got better and perhaps more stable. Alas, it would be contra-productive, to unnecessarily expose her to another traumatic event. That meant getting rid of any suddenly appearing Olympian reasonability with extreme prejudice, preferably without Medusa noticing. This way, I would be able to get proper rest only once I reached the Underworld. But given my clearly inhuman body, it was a small price to pay, and not even remotely tiering.
What was tiering though, was the spell to keep myself transformed into a human.
"Could we go now to the Underworld? It should be saved there, right?" Medusa asked, interrupting me out of my musings.
"Do you not want to think this through a bit more, Medusa?" I asked, questioning my close acquaintance's sudden decision.
"No, Arachne, I'm quite certain. I've been thinking about it for a while now, even if not all days were good. I just don't want to be on the run forever like before," she explained.
Her explanation was a reasonable one, given her previous experience of not being able to settle down for a longer period of time. I could only imagine how stressful such a lifestyle must have been, as my experience from previous life could barely apply. After all, as a soldier, I always had a home base, even if I was a leader of quick deployment units.
"That is understandable. Yet, are you absolutely certain? It would mean that you would be working with Olympians," I tried to probe her from a different angle.
"Persephone is a nice person, I can imagine working with her," she answered without hesitation.
"What of Hades?" I asked, my acquaintance about the possible future boss.
"Uhm... He can't be that bad, right? Persephone never said anything bad about him. And he was the one who healed Orthrus, wasn't he? If he were not a good person he wouldn't do that," said my, now optimistic, acquaintance.
Medusa was likely not completely right about the first reason, after all, who in their right mind would bad-talk their boss? Alas Persephone was truly quite an honest person and any mention of Hades, in our many talks, she never even indicated that his intention towards myself and Medusa was anything but the work-related. Neither did she mention, any kind of exploits, that were usually associated with his fellow Olympians Zeus and Poseidon. Not that I believed, that he was completely innocent in that regard, since all men are wolves, but he was at least able to keep his reputation, as a serious person, intact. Which was an achievement on its own.
But it was the second reason, that provided a valid argument about Hades being a decent person. Orthrus might be a monster, a designed creature by Olympians to fulfill its purpose. Still, the fact that Hades decided to heal him instead of making a new one, brought undisputable proof about his character.
"You are right. In that case, shall we go to tell Persephone, that we would like to negotiate the working contract with the Underworld?" I asked, motioning my hand toward Persephone's general location.
"Pfff! You sound like a sly merchant, Arachne!" my acquaintance laughed at my comment.
Yet there was nothing wrong with wanting to have a proper contract established, before getting employed. I had absolutely no intention of working unreasonable hours, with almost no vacation. Given that there would be three employees in the Underworld a thought about forming a workers union, as a precaution to avoid possible employee exploitation, occurred to me. And as much as my first life self would loathe the idea of forming a worker union, back then I could not comprehend why in the world should employees dictate to their employer how to run their business, thanks to my second life, I realized that there was a need to set reasonable boundaries, lest I wanted to risk slaving around for the rest of eternity, or however long my current lifespan was.
"Medusa, I am, or rather was, an astute merchant," I had to remind her, about my past.
Even though, it was ultimately my business venture, that led to Athena putting her sight on me. But then again, how was I supposed to know that she was an actual being, that was so petty, that she would ruin a well-established enterprise? If she had problems with me using her name, she should have sued me over the use of her trademark, if she had any trademark on her name in the first place, instead of changing me into a monster.
"Miss Persephone, I as well as Medusa, would like to accept your offer and work for you in the Underworld," I explained, to the dread queen, one Medusa and I reached the Olympian.
"That's great! Oh, I can't wait to show you around! I know that I already told you what it looks like around the Underworld, but it is a sight that you must see with your own eyes to fully appreciate it!" she proclaimed, not even trying to hide her excitement.
"Can we go and see the top of the mountain first?" asked Medusa, her eyes shining with stars.
Yes, Persephone was indeed a highly excitable person, and so was in fact Medusa, now that she managed to recover. Perhaps that was why they got along so well and so quickly. While I would rather first establish a proper contract that would clearly state the scope of my responsibilities in the Underworld, I would not be able to do so, until I met Hades, who was defacto my future boss. Hopefully, Underworld was not a black company, much like the Empire's army, since I had no desire to work overtime that much.
"That is a great idea Medusa, there is nothing like looking down from Mount Aitna in the morning, or afternoon," continued in her daydream, the dread queen.
Disregarding my original plan of taking a scenic route along the African coastline, given that Persephone proved trustworthy and friendly enough, while also Medusa managed to recover and the final decision about working in the Underworld was reached, the fastest way to get to the Underworld would be if Persephone could perform the teleportation formulae on all of us at the same time. This way, all possible dangers could be avoided. Alas, there was a stark difference between teleporting oneself, and the whole group of people. In fact, there were no spells, that I knew about, which could be directly cast on someone else, besides the medical formulae and the uplifting one. Moreover, Persephone was a competent individual, who would mention such an option, if it was available.
Then there was an option of going by the ship. From the travel time, it would be the second best option of all, but there was always the problem of sea monsters. And Orthrus as well. While he could change his form for a few hours a day, he was nowhere near capable, of staying in the form of an average-sized dog, with a single head, indefinitely. Therefore sea travel was not an option.
The shortest way, baring the sea travel, would then trace our path back, following the coast back to Mount Ahtos, or at least Macedonia, and then going through the mainland all the way down the Italian Peninsula or whatever its name was in this time and age, ending our journey, with a short boat ride to Sicily. But the problem was the ever-present mountains, which had to be crossed several times. And should I choose this route, the weather might end up on the colder side, and then Medusa's daughters would be less than happy and would eventually let me know their displeasure. I do not desire snake bites.
This then left me with my original plan, which was my least favorite option, even if it was preferable over sea monsters and snake bites. The path would be the longest with the worst possible terrain. And let's not forget the sand. There would be sand everywhere. At least there would be no battles and fighting involved this time.
"Medusa, the top of Mount Aitna is going to be cold, so you should learn some formula that can keep you warm. I expect that your daughters would appreciate not freezing their tounges off," I said remembering, that the equivalent mountain from my second life, had a snowcap atop.
She felt so embarrassed, once she came back to her senses. Oh... What in the world she was even thinking?! Nothing at the time, apparently!
But it was quite unbeleviable, that Miss Arachne somehow managed to combine her kind of magic with the Olympian one. Even if she herself could never do that. And doubted that any of the Olympians could. It was a miracle!
And exactly because it felt like a miracle, she pretty much ambushed Miss Arachne. Or at least it felt like it, since all the examinations she performed on Miss Arachne, without asking her first, was mostly performed by direct contact.
Now that she was back to her senses, she wondered whether she was just like the first-generation Olympians, Zeus and Poseidon. She felt very bad, for what she did, though.
But not everything was lost, even despite all the things, she did to Miss Arachne, she and Miss Medusa still accepted to work in the Underworld, which was great! And better yet, Miss Arachne planned a long route, which would allow for more observation. Though she should perhaps keep her hands to herself...
Unless of course, Miss Arachne allowed...
Her Father called for her and her sibling one day. Telling them all, that He is going to be busy with routing out that Gaia. She did not understand, why her Father, wanted to do anything with that vermin, but then again, she could not see the full scope of her Father's divine design for this world.
Then her Father commanded her four new siblings with a task of great importance. They should go all around the world, and bring other pantheons to the fold, or to the heel. But not her, she was to stay here in Greece and strengthen the hold of the area. It was clearly a sacred duty, but it also could not possibly show her greatness to her Father. She would not be angry because of that, certainly not!