The D8

Stheno woke at dawn, and cursed Apollo.

She had cursed him well over a million times by now, though she was no longer entirely certain of her total. At first, she had kept track by tearing chunks off of her least favorite statue, but that had been hundreds of statues ago and the trophies she had kept from each were no longer a reliable guide.

She pulled herself to the water. Though the ocean’s waves pounded at the rocky shore outside of her cave, it was not yet Poseidon’s turn—he would come later, when it was time to check her traps. Instead, she took the time to curse Aphrodite as she stared at her reflection.

Few men had seen her beautiful visage and lived. Once she would have thought that a shame—as the eldest sister, she had intended to be married first. Men had traveled for months for the privilege of courting her, and she had reveled in the heart of it.

Then her youngest sibling was ****, and all three sisters were cursed by the gods for no more crime than having been brought to the deities attention.

A flick of a cup broke the mirror effect of the pool of silver water and she lifted the goblet to her mouth to drink. She could not die, no matter what harm befell her, but dehydration and hunger were uncomfortable. This pool had once belonged to a water spirit, but her statue had crumbled to gravel centuries ago.

The magic remained. The water was clean, fresh, and cool. Stheno put down the cup on the lip of the pool, as she always did, and turned to slither towards the cave entrance. She rarely shifted to legs anymore—obtaining shoes was too much hassle, and the serpent’s tail fit her mood.

The gods had decreed that she was to be a monster, and she was powerless to refute them.

A moment later, it turned out she was powerless to resist the pull of other magic as well. Poseidon went un-cursed that day—at least by Stheno.

* * *

“The next member of our cast will need a little special handling. Now, if you’ll just give me a moment–” Lily’s voice filled the courtyard as she gestured towards one of the yet unopened doors. This time she didn’t wait for the contestant to even emerge before firing a blast of golden energy towards her. It passed straight through the reinforced oak that Kevin knew was intended to hold off an invading army without so much as slowing down, and the succubus continued smoothly, “Fifth to join Kevin’s band, the one, the only, the D8: Stheno!”

The door opened to reveal a monster. The tunic-covered torso of a slender woman was joined at the waist to the body of a massive serpent that had to be at least a dozen feet long. Her face was covered by a scrap of gauzy green fabric that did little to conceal the fine lines of a beautiful face with delicate features. The veil was attached on either side to a circlet that had been nestled amongst the forest of green snakes she sported instead of hair.

Only after Kevin met her gaze through the cloth did he realize with a shock who and what he was looking at. He quickly averted his eyes, only for Lily to laugh in delight. “Don’t worry, Kevin. While our contestants should be working to turn you hard as stone, we’ve taken some steps to ensure poor Stheno here has a fighting chance. If no one could look at her face, I don’t think she’d get to be very popular with the audience. That veil she wears is a gift, courtesy of Harem Hotel, that will block the curse that would otherwise have turned you stiff in all the wrong ways!”

The eight-sided green die in Kevin’s hand soon floated over the newcomer’s head, as she slithered forward and scanned around the room. Unlike the others, Stheno showed no sign of apprehension, fear, or even anger. Instead, her expression was almost placid, with only the barest hint of curiosity peeking through. “The gods have grown tired of my insolence, then? Was it Aphrodite or Apollo this time? They were the two I cursed most recently.”

She reached a hand up, and Kevin noticed that her skin was a dark olive color that only became green where it transitioned to scales. Her lower snake half was uncovered, but also seemed more or less featureless—if she had anything to conceal, it was just under the hem of the tunic. The shirt was long, but ragged and dirty.

Stheno gave a tentative tug at her veil, but was unable to dislodge it from her face. As the music in the room changed to light lyres that caressed the hearing, the gorgon shook her head a little to test the magic restraining the curse, and then shrugged.

“I will face this trial as I have all the others. Go on then, fury, tell me what the gods would have of me.” The words were addressed to Lily, who met them with a smile.

“Stheno, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself.”

Unlike the first several, the succubus didn’t wield the magic she commanded to **** an answer from the snake-woman, who shrugged her narrow shoulders. “I am Stheno, the eldest of the gorgons. The last of them, as far as I know, for Medusa was slain millennia ago, and I fear Euryale lost to madness. The gods cursed me for having the temerity to have a beautiful and pious sister, and I have spent the long years since wishing I could join her.”

Kevin’s gaze swept across the expressions of the rest of the women present. Penny looked furious at what had been done to the newcomer, Tess looked deep in thought, and Elsie was staring at Lily in shock.

Only Hwa seemed unaffected, the kumiho having moved to stand apart from everyone else in the corner of the room. She regarded the proceedings with an air of detached superiority that she refused to release, no matter who or what arrived.

Lily, on the other hand, was undimmed by the pall Stheno’s arrival had cast over the proceedings. The smile on her lips never dipped as she proclaimed, “I can’t promise that, but maybe this will be a chance for you to break free of the hold of the gods! Now, that might mean you have to compromise your usual ‘living in a cave and catching fish for sustenance’ lifestyle, but wait until I get everyone gathered her together, and I’ve got something to offer you. Several somethings, in fact, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.”

For the first time since she arrived, a look of actual interest crossed Stheno’s face. She slithered forward with shocking speed, crossing the distance to lean in and examine Lily from no more than a few feet away. Kevin nearly stumbled at her rapid approach—while the snake-woman’s torso was that of a relatively small woman, her serpent half was massive and when she drew herself up, she was well taller than Lily.

“I have waited millennia. I can wait more. I can out wait the gods themselves, if I must. I will listen.”

“Fantastic. Now, onto our next member. Dungeon Master?”

Kevin took a breath to steady himself from the sudden flood of adrenaline the rapid approach of what his hind-brain tried to tell him was a monster had released. His heart continued to pound, but eventually he was able to reach into the bag,