Knossos City, residence of the Hearth Goddess.
The three virgin goddesses were seated together in the living room, casually enjoying some fruit pastries before dinner while waiting for the grand meal to be served.
To pass the time, they naturally began to discuss a few major recent events that had occurred on Mount Olympus.
First among them: due to lax oversight, sea beasts from the Oceanus Sea had run rampant and attacked nearby human cities.
As the god of the sea, Poseidon was summoned by Zeus to Olympus and scolded harshly.
To compensate for the damage to the human city-states and to demonstrate divine mercy, Zeus ordered Poseidon to provide three years of bountiful fish tides and to share some rare minerals and seafood from the Oceanus Sea with the affected cities.
Among these, the most severely impacted, the island of Crete, undoubtedly received the most generous compensation.
But as the patron goddess of the Minoans, Athena had serious objections to such a toothless punishment.
She demanded more substantial measures, such as establishing safe zones and ordering sea beasts to retreat at least thirty li (about fifteen kilometers) from the coastline.
Of course, Poseidon was equally dissatisfied with Zeus's ruling.
He stubbornly insisted on a full investigation to find the culprit behind the deaths of his Atlantean royal guards, and even demanded that humanity be held accountable for the extensive losses suffered by his divine-blooded followers in recent years.
And so, the two sides continued to bicker endlessly over who was responsible and who had actually started the conflict.
The arguments had been going back and forth for months without any resolution.
Hestia, listening intently, couldn't help but ask with curiosity:
"And then?"
"That's it," Athena replied blandly, sipping her honey water with a calm expression.
"That's it?" Hestia, eagerly waiting for more, raised her voice in disbelief, looking stunned.
Wasn't Zeus supposed to uphold justice?
Perhaps sensing her aunt's confusion, Artemis shrugged and said faintly:
"Because Father recently went down to the mortal world again… and got caught. Now he and the Queen of Heaven are in a huge fight."
"…"
Hearing such an unexpected, yet entirely typical ,outcome, Hestia was speechless. Still, she couldn't suppress her curiosity and sneakily asked for the whole story.
As it turns out, the matter wasn't all that complicated.
Not long ago, Zeus, indulging in his usual habit of descending to the mortal world to chase women, set his sights on a water nymph named Aegina.
He transformed into a mighty eagle and abducted her.
But Aegina's father, the river god Asopus, happened to possess an unusually intense paternal love, which was something rare among the gods of Greek mythology.
He had a total of nine daughters and took great pride and joy in having so many innocent, lovely girls.
He cherished them dearly.
Yet fate seemed determined to torment this gentle, out-of-place father figure of the divine era.
One by one, his daughters mysteriously disappeared, leaving him heartbroken.
In search of them, the old river god scoured countless lands, questioning mortals and deities alike, but never received a single clue.
After eight daughters vanished under strange circumstances, only his youngest, Aegina, remained.
Driven to despair, the grieving river god guarded her with extreme care, unwilling to lose his last beloved daughter.
But despite all his precautions, the river god still failed to stop the descent of the King of the Gods.
While the river god was resting, Zeus transformed into a great eagle and swiftly abducted the water nymph Aegina.
However, the old river god, who had already lost everything, did not collapse upon hearing the tragic news. Instead, he stubbornly set out in search of his daughter's whereabouts.
Ignoring the warnings of prophets sent by Zeus, he chased after the divine eagle in an attempt to take his daughter back.
In the end, Zeus, overwhelmed by desire and unwilling to give up such a beautiful girl, hurled a lightning bolt that struck the river god's leg.
While the old god was unconscious, he took Aegina to a remote island, consummated with her, and sired a divine son named Aeacus.
Zeus believed this whole affair had been flawlessly executed, but little did he know that Sisyphus, king of Corinth, had witnessed everything from start to finish.
Later on, the whole story, somehow, made its way to Mount Olympus and, through various channels, landed in Hera's ears.
As a result, the furious Queen of Heaven naturally seized the chance to unleash her wrath on her chronically unfaithful husband.
With this unexpected crisis on his hands, Zeus, who now had lawsuits coming from all directions, no longer had the heart to deal with the quarrel between Athena and Poseidon.
At the moment, he was busy hiding across the land, avoiding his wife, who was hunting him down for an explanation.
Though her tone remained calm, the huntress goddess clearly carried a trace of gloating in her voice as she told the story.
Hestia, however, seemed genuinely sympathetic to the poor river god who had been dragged into disaster, and couldn't help but speak a word of justice:
"Zeus is… really getting more and more out of line."
"Hasn't Father always been that way?"
Athena gently turned the cup in her hand and responded with a light, rhetorical question.
For a moment, Hestia had no words.
She could only sigh in frustration, and the pity and anger in her eyes slowly faded away in helpless resignation.
Right or wrong, Olympus affairs were simply beyond her control.
And if she truly wished to continue living in peace, she shouldn't be meddling either.
— These were the words Athena had warned her with time and time again.
Since she was powerless to intervene, Hestia could only push those worries aside and raise her head to change the subject.
"So… even now, there's still no real resolution to the Crete issue?"
"Still negotiating," Athena replied coolly, her expression as calm as ever.
Her intention from the beginning had never been to covet Atlantis's local goods.
She deliberately stirred the waters, escalating the matter to prevent Poseidon from openly laying a hand on Crete under public scrutiny.
The fiercer and longer the dispute lasted, the safer Crete would be.
And everything had unfolded exactly as the goddess of wisdom had expected.
Thus, she didn't mind wasting some words and spending a few extra days publicly bickering with Poseidon.
The only concern was that her uncle might not back down so easily…
At the thought of that massive sea-blue arm descending from the sky, Athena couldn't help but feel a flicker of unease in her heart.
Seeing her brilliant niece clearly had her own strategy, the ever-self-aware Hestia tactfully didn't ask further.
Instead, she turned to the other niece beside her.
"And you? Artemis? What brings you here all of a sudden?"
Artemis gave a soft smile and gently explained her purpose:
"Isn't the annual Festival of the Gods coming up? Father asked me to see if you'll be returning to Olympus this year."
"No!" Hestia refused without a moment's hesitation, already half-guessing the real reason her god-king brother had sent Artemis so formally to invite her back.
Aside from the surface-level Festival of the Gods, there was likely another motive, whicy was, asking her to help mediate with Hera.
After all, it had been so long. Zeus couldn't possibly be unaware of how she really felt about those seemingly harmonious family gatherings of the divine clan.
What's more, previous invitations had never been this formal.
Unknowingly, the hearth goddess had guessed nearly all of the god-king's intentions.
Clearly, after so many years of subtle influence, and a certain someone's persistent persuasion, even someone like Hestia, who didn't usually think too deeply, had developed a healthy wariness and distance from her seemingly just and fair younger brother.
And hearing Hestia respond just as she always did, Artemis wasn't surprised.
She smiled sweetly, hugging her aunt's other arm with a bit of intimacy and hope.
"Then how about this year, you come stay with me in Arcadia? Staying in one place too long can get dull, you know?"
Oh, so you came here just to poach her…
Across the room, Athena gently set down her cup.
Internally, she let out a cold sneer, casting a faint glance at Artemis, whose intentions were clearly impure.
Then, turning to Hestia, she put on a warm and pleasant smile.
"Aunt, I don't mind at all. Don't worry — go wherever you like."
However, faced with Athena's open and generous offer, Hestia still decisively shook her head and gave Artemis an apologetic look.
"Better not. I've gotten used to it here after all this time, moving is just too much trouble."
Though both were nieces and fellow virgin goddesses, their situations were worlds apart.
Artemis still had her mother Leto's protection and her brother Apollo's care.
And Athena? She had nothing.
Not even Zeus's favoritism, which always seemed to carry ulterior motives.
Therefore, compared to Artemis, Hestia clearly felt more sympathy for Athena.
Seeing how firm Hestia was, Artemis couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.
"Alright then… I'll come visit often."
"Sure! You're welcome anytime! To tell you the truth, ever since that boy moved in, the food at my place has gone up more than just a notch!"
Thrilled by her niece's gesture of affection, Hestia readily agreed, and took the opportunity to show off her personal chef.
But before the hearth goddess could finish a few more words of praise, a commotion erupted from the backyard.
Artemis turned her head toward the noise, her expression suddenly shifting as she abruptly stood up.
"Stop! What are you doing?!"
"C-Cooking…?"
At that moment, Lorne, who had been crouched in the backyard preparing ingredients, lifted two struggling rabbits from the vegetable patch.
Turning to look at the huntress goddess who had just shouted, his face was full of confusion and bewilderment.
(End of Chapter)