The level of perfection he attained ought to be blasphemous. That way, she could strip his immortality from him and cast him into the fire of Hades with good reason.
He smiled at her, and even though the grin was a bit lopsided, it was incredibly charming. It made her breath cling to her throat. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from him to prevent him from seeing her blush. Pretended to study the writings on the scroll tacked to the marble wall even though she’d already memorized everything there.
“What do you want, Poseidon?” Her icy voice didn’t betray her heart. Didn’t reveal her feelings. Good for her. Because she was Athena, virgin goddess, and her heart ought to be a stone when it came to men. Ought to be.
“Don’t be so cold,” he chuckled. “Can’t I come to simply enjoy your company?”
Ha. She wished for that, but it was as likely as Zeus being faithful to Hera for an entire century. So she ignored him and continued to read the words she already knew by heart. She would wait for him to spit out the favor he wanted to ask of her, and if he wasn’t going to admit he wanted a favor then she would wait forever.
Silence reigned absolute for a few moments. Then from the corner of her eye she saw Medusa saunter in, carrying incense.
Poseidon’s eyes flicked over to the blond beauty and Athena tensed. Medusa’s stride was almost seductive today, and her golden curls seemed meticulously arranged. Had she foreseen Poseidon coming? Medusa walked towards the altar and bent down slowly, gracefully, like she never did when there was no one else in the temple. Athena clenched her fist, aware of Poseidon’s eyes on the priestess.
“Your favorite little human is here now. Is she who you came to visit?” The words were acid on her tongue. It burned her to say it so calmly, hurt her to pretend she didn’t care that Poseidon’s attention was taken from her by a mere mortal.
His gaze snapped back to Athena. There was a sparkle in his dark blue eyes. “Why, Athena, are you jealous?”
She turned to face him, face contorted in fury. Her hand trembled as she pointed an accusatory finger at him. “You, how dare you accuse me of - ? I tire myself taking care of all your little favorites until you decide to turn them into nymphs and you just–“
“I was teasing, darling.” He laughed, leaning on a large marble pillar as he did so.
Her fury died down and the blush crept back onto her cheeks. Of course. Teasing. How like Poseidon. She held her chin up high. “Of course. I knew that.” Oh yes, that sounded so wise. What an amazing goddess of wisdom she was turning out to be. Athena scowled. “And don’t call me darling.” Not if you don’t mean it.
He sighed and shook his head. “Athena, Athena, Athena.”
She hated the way her name was musical on his lips. “What now? I have other things to do.”
"Like run the seas? I don’t think so.” His smile was so lazy, so carefree she wanted to shove him out of her temple. Poseidon let his gaze stray to Medusa again, only to transfer his attention back to Athena when she let out a little hiss. “I need something from Zeus.” He licked his lips, and somehow Athena knew that he wasn’t thinking of whatever he was getting from Zeus.
“Why don’t you visit him yourself? After all, you have the time to drop by my temple. Or maybe you just enjoy coming by because I’m babysitting all your little lovers-to-be?”
Medusa stiffened and Athena fought back a smirk.
“We all know Zeus favors you, Athena.” His suggestive smile sent her skin crawling. She rubbed her arms to flatten the hairs, but it didn’t help much. “I need my trident back.”
Athena’s eyebrows shot up. “He stole your trident? How can he even –“
“He didn’t steal it by himself. One of his sons – Heracles was it? – stole it from me, said something about borrowing it before disappearing into Zeus knows where. I need it back. You know I do.”
“And you won’t ask him yourself because…?”
“It’ll get done much faster if you do it for me.” Poseidon grinned again. “Please? Just one last favor. This is the last one, I promise I won’t ask you to immortalize anyone else after this.” Puppy dog eyes.
She sighed. Why did he have to give her that look? “All right I’ll go. Stay here and watch my temple for me. And Poseidon?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t fool around. For their sake.”
------------------------------------------------------
It had been fairly easy to convince Zeus to give back Poseidon’s trident. Tomorrow, he promised. She could have it tomorrow, and she could hand it over to Poseidon personally.
The sun shone over the golden streets of Olympus and Athena smiled. It couldn’t hurt to walk today. To feel the sunshine on her skin, to breathe in the fresh air.
But on her way back, another blond slunk up to her. Athena narrowed her eyes and kept walking as if she didn’t notice Eris by her side. Eris, who’d thrown that apple into the party and started a foolish war. Eris, who could ruin Athena’s day without even trying.
“I heard you talking with Zeus.”
Athena kept walking. Ignorance was bliss, after all. It proved to be a mistake.
“Are you still running around for Poseidon? Guess being wise isn’t a requirement for becoming a goddess of wisdom.” Eris snorted and shook her head. “He’s treating you like a horse, you know that?”
Athena’s fists clenched. “That’s not true.” Poseidon was just busy a lot of the time. So he asked her favors sometimes. Besides, they were small things. Nothing significant.
“Really? Aren’t his lovers-to-be still bunking at your temple for the meantime? And didn’t you just visit Zeus to talk for Poseidon? Speaking of the jerk, where is he – no. You didn’t leave him there alone, did you?”
Athena stopped walking and turned to face the younger goddess. “I’d appreciate if you didn’t mock my decisions all the time.”
“Answer me, Thee. Did you leave him alone in your temple?”
“Not alone.” Athena cleared her throat. “My priestesses are there.”
“Your young, beautiful virgin priestesses. Oh my Zeus, you can be so dense sometimes, you know that?’ Eris doubled over, cackling and gasping for breath. “That is the wisest thing I’ve ever heard anyone doing. Leaving Poseidon, alone in a temple full of virgin priestesses clamoring for immortal-“
“Poseidon isn’t like that. And I can live without the sarcasm, Eris.” Poseidon wouldn’t – would he? Okay, he would. But her priestesses wouldn’t betray her. They all had to follow her rules, or else they would never gain the immortality they craved.
“Right.” Eris rolled her eyes.
“Right.”
But the damage was done. Athena’s breath came in short gasps and her pace quickened. Eris began to fall back, snickering.
“Good luck with lover boy, Thee!”
At that, Athena broke into a run.
And what did she expect? Of course Eris was right. Athena stood at the entrance of her own grand temple, of the Parthenon, and watched Poseidon and Medusa. At first it was just a kiss and Athena could handle it. But then it grew, and Poseidon’s hand was crawling up Medusa’s leg. And Athena couldn’t stand it anymore.
Athena stepped into her own temple, choking on her tears. Every priestess in her temple was someone Poseidon recommended. Did he recommend them because he’d have easy access to them, while allowing them to work towards immortality at the same time? And the girls – did they honestly believe Athena would never find out? Did they think they could bring their lovers over and do anything they wanted in her temple?
And all the girls, all of them had to know Athena loved Poseidon. Zeus, even Eris noticed it, and Eris was hardly ever around Athena. Did the girls think it would be funny to mock Athena by taking Poseidon’s affection for themselves?
Medusa saw Athena first, and her eyes widened in fear. She shoved Poseidon away and began to wail. “Don’t come near me!”
Poseidon blinked and turned back. When he saw Athena on the verge of tears he swallowed and hung his head in shame.
Athena could almost hear Eris whispering to her.
“Zeus, Athena! You could do whatever you want, and people would hail it as a wise move. You could start wars and they wouldn’t say a thing. You could steal Zeus’s thunderbolt, and they would praise your for it. You could get away with anything, even murder. No one will mind. At all.”
She could punish Medusa and be told she was brilliant. Besides, punishing Medusa would show the other girls Athena’s stricter side.
“Poseidon, leave my temple. Now.”
He left without another word and Athena walked towards the whimpering girl. Both women trembled and shed tears, one with rage and the other with fear.
“You – you mocked me. In my own temple, no less.” The words were cold, cold like Athena’s heart. A heart that ought to never love a man.
------------------------------------------------------------------
“M’lady? Someone is here to see you.”
Someone. Poseidon. Athena’s grip around the trident tightened. She closed her eyes and a few tears fell as she tried so desperately to forget what she’d done in that moment of rage. The poor girl was going to suffer. The only way to end the girl’s misery was to kill her, so Athena…the monster, she threw the monster in an old temple of hers and tried to burn the temple down. She prayed the monster burned to death, for Medusa’s peace of mind, as well as for Athena’s own sanity.
“Show him in,” Athena said.
Poseidon walked into the temple, but his usual confident stride was replace with a warier one. He smiled at her but the smile withered when her glare intensified. A few more tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Athena, I can explain –“
“You don’t need to.” She flung his beloved trident to the floor. The golden weapon clattered at his feet. She looked away, her vision blurry with tears. “Take your trident and leave, Poseidon. And don’t ever show yourself to me again.”
She got away with murder, all right. Gotten away with everything but her heart intact.
-END-
Note: This is sort of a companion story to Elinor Brynn's Medusa. It is also my entry to a certain competition.
