Chapter Text
*Clatter*
"Alisandre, is that you?" A woman wreathed in light brown robes, hair undulating against the breeze, turned from the vinecluster she'd been pruning of sick leaves.
"Ye.. yes, it's me"
A young woman in a pale red dress was navigating her way through a forest of statues, taking slow, measured steps with one hand holding her skirts and the other forwards and out, just in case she misremembered.
Medusa frowned for a moment. While she'd meant to clean out this batch of statues before Alisandre returned, the days had slipped by with terrifying ease, there being little to occupy her mind other than tending to her gardens on a normal day.
That wasn't what bothered the Snake-Haired woman though. No, it was the stutter in her friends voice that was her cause for concern. She'd spent the better part of a decade building the confidence of the jittery young girl that had stumbled into her gardens one day. "Has it really been a decade? It still seems like yesterday" It had mostly been successful. The young girl on the edge of puberty had walked with her head down, almost hunched over but with her arms stretched out, a pose that would have been comical if not for the implication it carried.
Medusa would have been terrified of accidentally petrifying an innocent, for young girls at that age were almost universally innocent, but that moment had passed after she'd accidentally looked the girl in the eye as soon as she detected the intrusion.
Instead, she'd taken her time observing the intruder from a distance, flinching whenever she collided with a statue or nearly tripped over an exposed root. Personally, she really liked the blend between wilderness and design she'd achieved, but for an obviously blind girl it must have been a nightmare to navigate.
When the young girl had found a partially crumbled wall and crept around it, only to collapse against it and in on herself, Medusa had been conflicted for a moment. She'd withdrawn from the business of mortals centuries ago, after that fool with the mirror shield had nearly killed her simply because she petrified the occasional intruder in her home.
Those intruders had always been so rude too, demanding hospitality without being the least bit willing to respect their host, or straight up shouting demands as soon as they perceived it was a home they were entering. She still didn't see why someone living in a cave off her own gardens had to pay taxes, and didn't particularly care to find out.
After her close brush with death, she'd moved further inland during the nights, lest the local king set another mad adventurer on her tail, and more still until one finally succeeded.
But the young girl that had devolved into sobs in a corner of her garden was a massive contrast from even the few mortals she'd had contact with since her journey to a new home ended.
As she'd carefully crept up on her new visitor, not willing to scare her with a sudden approach or by voicing one of the many questions she had, the bundle of misery seemed to have exhausted itself and collapsed into a restless slumber. It had made it much easier to transport her to the back of the extensive gardens and into the cave she'd found underneath these ruins. Her bedding might not have been the luxurious mattresses that had become popular in this age, but it was still very comfortable, and a much better place to rest than a corner in the overgrown ruins of a chapel.
After the girl woke up, it hadn't taken long to coax the reasons for her misery out of her. Medusa might not have had any form of relationship with her own parents (Which would be rather difficult, as they were both Ocean-Dwelling Chtonic Deities), but it was easy to imagine how losing your mother would hurt. Especially if your father was stoic or even downright callous about it.
Medusa's frown deepened with that memory, learning that the girl's father had essentially declared her to have no worth other than whatever potential alliance she could forge with marriage. Something he promptly set to preparing as soon as the traditional mourning period was over.
It was how they'd kept meeting after that first time. Medusa, feeling pity for the cruel fate the girl had had thrust upon her, had promised her to help rid her of any unwanted suitors, so that she would marry only someone she liked. It had taken some work to find ways to trap and petrify the suitors without either catching their whole entourage or arousing suspicion, but the results were worth it.
Rather than her waking hours being plagued by suitor after suitor, some quite literally fighting for her attention, Alisandre's suitors now came in fits and bursts, allowing her respite from the stress of both turning them down without offending and arranging for them to be trapped.
In those restful days, whenever she could get away from her handlers, Alisandre would seek out Medusa, preferring the peace and quiet of a wild garden far from the Capital City. How the blind girl managed to navigate through the whole city and the surrounding wilderness without running into any trouble eluded Medusa, she was just glad for the company. It was filling a void the snake-haired woman only now realized she'd had for centuries.
And now, despite her best efforts, that stutter was back. It was a tick that returned only when Alisandre was beyond nervous and straight into frightened, so whatever engendered that state it was cause for great concern.
'Thwump'
Her musing was interrupted by a body colliding with her own, nearly knocking her over.
---
Alisandre was running as fast as she dared, following the now well-trodden path she'd all but carved herself between the city walls and Medusa's Garden, hard-heeled boots alternatively digging into the dirt and clacking on a stray cobblestone or snapping an errant twig. The news she'd received from her father had all but frozen her up for a few minutes, the King of Zinta turning away within seconds of delivering the little tidbit he'd deigned to share.
If it wasn't for the dire implications of the news, she'd be happy that her father had finally seen fit to speak directly to her again, instead of relying on messengers and heralds to communicate. As it was, after she'd thought through exactly what this new development would mean for her.
As she entered the outskirts of Medusa's Garden, she adjusted her path and slowed down somewhat. While she tried her best to keep the paths the same, Medusa's garden wasn't a carefully cultivated structure, instead it was a painting of sounds, smells, feeling and life. Life is ever-changing, and so was Medusa's garden. Not to mention the statues of particularly insistent suitors that inevitably ended up here.
Barely managing to sidestep an unexpected statue, she slowed to a walk only to knock against another, causing a clattering noise to reverberate through the half-covered hall she had now entered.
"Alisandre, is that you?" The call rung out from ahead of her, the voice of her one true friend instantly vaporizing the tension she'd been holding in her body, though her heartbeat remained as erratic as it had been for the last hour. Her breathing was slowly calming from the run, only possible because of the horse she'd taken from her father's stables in her hurry. She'd not have made it halfway otherwise.
"Ye... yes, it's me" Hating how her stutter had returned, she nonetheless homed in on where she'd heard Medusa's voice call out, relying on memory only until she was within range to hear the soft hissing always produced by the snakes that were the woman's hair. Then she sped back up, unwilling to wait another moment for the relief her friend's touch might bring, and the pleasant calm her scent always induced, ever-changing though it was.
'Thwump' Apparently, she'd caught her friend by surprise, judging by how they nearly toppled over. Quite the feat, considering the great strength she knew Medusa possessed. Throwing her arms around Medusa, she finally let go completely, breaking into sobs she'd not voiced here for almost a decade. Immediately, she felt Medusa tense, and her snakes' hisses became agitated, blending for a moment with the rustling of the flowering vines she knew this ruined chapel was covered in. It almost drowned out her own sobs, and it warmed Alisandre's heart that the mere thought of her in distress would cause this reaction from the woman she cared more for than any other in her life.
"My dear girl, whatever is the matter now? It's been years since I last saw you so distressed."
'Ah, there was the difficult question'. How to explain this devastating development, which spelled the end to life as they'd both known it?
"M... My father, H-he brought news. A-another procession is coming, this time from the Ig... Igris Alliance. The message..."
Here Alisandre paused and took a deep breath, before slowly releasing it to calm herself as much as possible. "T-the message said there would be no less than two dozen potential suitors in the procession, each different than the last. A-and, the implication was there, that should I reject them all... It would be a grave insult. O-one that we really cannot afford..."
*Clunk*
It seems Medusa had put down her shears with rather more force than strictly necessary.
---
Medusa still wasn't sure why the continued interest from kingdoms around the world angered her, but it did. Why did all these lecherous men continue to pursue the sweet girl she'd come to know? Where there no other princesses to pursue? Surely there were noblewomen of sufficient beauty and nobility to draw the attention of a prince, especially since many of them would actually welcome it, unlike Alisandre?
It wasn't like Zinta was all that large or wealthy a kingdom anyway. It primarily existed as neutral ground, centralized between numerous opposing factions, with a few other minor nations as buffer.
Gaining the hand of the princess was advantageous, yes, but surely not enough so to send dozens of young men of high standing to their rumored deaths? Word had to have spread of the fates of the many suitors she'd petrified, even if it was only known they'd vanished without trace. But no, apparently pursuing her Alisandre was worth a little death by Petrifying Gaze.
*Clunk*
Medusa practically threw down the shears she'd held in one hand, the other having long since found its way around Alisandre as the young woman burrowed into her, seeking comfort.
"Well then, it looks like I'll be going on a little trip once more. Which direction did you say the Igris Alliance lies again?"
Surprisingly, this forced another sob from Alisandre's throat, quite the opposite reaction she'd expected.
"W-...W-...West!"
Shit
There was only one thing west from the Capital of Zinta. A large body of water, called the "Bay of Silent Wind", after a prayer to ward off Siren's Song, which opened directly to the Blackwave Ocean, a sea full of murky depths and terrifying creatures, rumored to contain a chasm leading directly to Tartaros. This meant that the Procession would not be arriving over land, like all the others. It would be a Fleet, and a large and powerful one if it was designed to cross the Blackwave Ocean. Her Siren nieces could not do much against such a force, luring away even one ship from such a fleet would be a massive risk. There was only one way this could be resolved... The favor owed to her by the Sirens might not be enough to stop the fleet, but they could carry a message.
A message to the one man she'd sworn she would never think of again, nevermind speak to. The one that had caused her to draw the wrath of Athena and bear the curse that had made her an outcast, no, a monster. It had turned her from one of the most beautiful women in the country into this... disgusting thing.
Oh, she knew most of her features remained, but the snake hair and the slightly bulging eyes were enough to put off even the bravest of men in those days, quickly turning compliments to insults, lust into hate and fear. It was only a matter of time before she struck back against the hate, beginning her reputation as a monster. And now, because he was the only one that held power over the seas, the ability to stop the Fleet in its tracks before it arrived, she had to become indebted to him.
Poseidon
"UGH".