Page 4 of Prometheus' Priestess

“That I do not know. But she clearly has a steel spine if she could maintain her chastity after her stint in your court before cultivating courage in my war rooms,” Athena said. For she would not have taken on a priestess whose maidenhood had been broken and Aphrodite was known to lavish her ladies with desires of the flesh as much as she was to dote on them with beauty and material gifts when they foundfavour.

“I remember her now,” Aphrodite nodded gracefully. “Oh, she was a delight. A beautiful creature too, if I remembercorrectly.”

“Someone who can hold polar opposites with such ease as to go unnoticed amongst the goddesses’ courts must surely be a talented alchemist.” Lysia looked at the two goddessespointedly.

“You are right as ever, Lysia. Fetch her for me, would you?” Athena asked. The High Priestess bowed in acquiescence and excused herself from the room. When she left, silence stretched across the table between the two sisters. Eventually, Aphrodite spoke.

“You always strategise better when you think out loud,” she admonished Athena. “I can practically feel your thoughts bursting against your head as Ispeak.”

That head, which was usually adorned with a gold-plated Corinthian helmet, was free today, Athena’s bronzed and honey-coloured hair falling in loose curls around hershoulders.

Athena blew out a sharp breath. “There is one major problem with sending an alchemist toEarth.”

“Whichis?”

“To send Amara to teach the humans alchemy, we would have to get her in a humanbody.”

Aphrodite stared at her blankly and Athena sighed infrustration.

“How do you get an immortal in a mortal body? We can transfigure them into just about anything. We can turnourselvesinto mortal form for a time, but I have never placed an immortal soul into a human body. Haveyou?”

Aphrodite pursed her lips while a cute furrow appeared between perfectly manicured eyebrows. She could not say she had. For it had never been done before. Prometheus had shaped their original bodies from clay, sealed them with Zeus’ spittle and sintered them with the white fire of knowledge. Athena had breathed life into them and Aphrodite had gifted them with emotionalintellect.

“You could strip her from her immortal skin and build a new mortal body around her.”

Athena paused, tapping out a rhythm with her fingers on the table as she considered it.

“It’s brutal but it could work. How would we get her to agree to itthough?”

Aphrodite shrugged. Athena despaired at how mercurial she couldbe.

“Being gifted with a task of this magnitude by her lieges shows an incredible level of trust. What more could she want? It’s the highest honour we cangive.”

“She might not want to be stripped of her immortality,” Athenareasoned.

Aphrodite made a back-handed shooing motion in the air. “We can put her back if we claim her task is an apotheosis. After all, humankind will be benefited by her actions, no?”

“A rite of passage where she reclaims immortality she alreadyhas?”

“We could strip her of it simply for the fact she fooled each of us by omission by serving in three different temples.”

“You know there is no spoken rule that says she cannot do that.” The timbre of Athena’s voice held a warning.

“An unspoken rule is still arule.”

“No, that is not fair or just.”

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. “Fairness is not the judge of allfates.”

“It is in this room. No, I will appeal to her sense of duty. Like you so eloquently stated, the act is an honour. Perhaps we could reward her with more than her immortality should she completeit.”

There was another brief pause as Aphrodite considered her sister’s proposal before nodding.

“Kleos, a gift of glory, to cement her place in Olympic history. Yes, I will think of a suitablereward.”

“Good. In the meantime, we shall need help with the human vessel to put her in. Let us pray that Prometheus is in the mood for anaudience.”

Aphrodite laughed and, unlike her sister’s bark, it was a trillion trills that reminded anyone in its vicinity of tiny bells ringing. “That man is never in the mood for anaudience.”

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