Revelations 2

“I know we were late, but I don’t understand. If clues keep saying that she’s pretending to be Aphrodite, why do we need to keep looking for someone else?” Helena asked. Everyone had gathered in one room within the library. Hazel and Ava had carried in a couch from one of the other nooks, which Hazel was sitting in the middle of with her girlfriend on one side of her and Luna on the other. Ava herself had opted to stand, leaning against one of the bookshelves.

“She’s not enough of a bitch.” Felicia answered helpfully, taking a break from the popcorn she’d brought from the dining hall to speak.

“I’m sorry?”

“I… wouldn’t have phrased it exactly like that, but she’s not wrong.” Aubrey admitted. She was standing at a chalkboard they’d found, leading the discussion as Richard had asked her to. “In the stories, Aphrodite is incredibly prideful and petty. Even with the people she liked, she had a tendency to lash out at the slightest whim if she felt disrespected. In one story she helped Hippomenes win the woman he’d set his eyes on and he didn’t offer a sacrifice to her as thanks. In response, she mentally mind controlled him and his wife into having sex at a shrine to Zeus. He turned them into lions, which they would’ve expected if they’d been in their right minds. We all know Genet, and that’s not the kind of thing that she’d think of doing.”

Felicia put down her snack again. “Hippomenes and the lions. Isn’t that one of the stories with Ata? Wait, what the fuck was that?”

Aubrey nodded excitedly. “No, you’re right. It’s Ata’s story, but neither of us are trying to say Ata. Something on this show is replacing the name of a twenty five hundred year old mythical heroine with the name of our shopkeeper, and she did her best during the challenge to confirm for me that they were the same person. There’s something very weird and very Greek going on. But-”

“-Genet’s too much of ‘I’m not a regular mom, I’m the cool mom’ to do something like that.” Luna finished. “I’m going to try to ignore how horrifying it would still be to still be alive that long for now, but I feel like someone should start trying to check on Ata eventually. On the main topic the mentor stuff seems like it keeps pointing to Aphrodite, right? Hazel told us about her’s feeling like a fellow veteran and using her to flirt with Genet. Ava’s got the nerdy guy with the cough that claimed to be her husband. I know I don’t know as much about the myths as you two, but it doesn’t seem like any of your other ideas are possible.”

“There’s still Aglaia.” Aubrey pointed out the only name that hadn’t yet been crossed out on the chalkboard. Above and below it were a dozen other names of goddesses that had been written and crossed out. Aphrodite had been written five times and crossed out four over the course of the day as people kept bringing up new evidence that implicated or exonerated the goddess of love and beauty. Even after Genet had dropped off lunch, there hadn’t been much progress after Hel and Aubrey retrieved the chalkboard from where they hid it behind the couch.

“Does Aglaia have any water connections? I know you said she was a goddess of light, but I don’t know if she’s connected to Poseidon or something.” Ava asked.

Aubrey shocked her head. “No. Her only strong connections were Aphrodite, as her servant, and Hephaestus, as the poet Hesiod wrote about her marrying him after he divorced her boss.”

“What, so she just swooped in? That’s kind of fucked up.” Felicia commented.

Aubrey stared down at her. “Yes. ‘swooping in’ is ‘kind of fucked up’. I’m glad we can agree on that.” She continued trying to stare a hole through the other blonde until Felicia slowly offered a middle finger in return.

Hazel broke the silence. “Why were you asking about water connections?”

“Well, Genet told me on our first day here that the fish tank at the Trident was a gift from one of her friends. So I figured we could use that, and maybe some of the other cottages, as a clue?” Ava offered. “There’s also that little cave that she had me explore last round, she said it was originally a gift for her nephew.”

Aubrey allowed herself to put aside her rivalry again for a moment. “Aglaia has no shared stories with Posiedon, and Aphrodite has only casual allyship at the most. Neither of them have shared stories with Hades either… but I could see Aphrodite admiring certain interpretations of the Hades and Persephone story, and Poseidon did have the best relationship with his wife out of the three brothers. I know what the Pom is like, can someone who’s lived in the other two tell me more about them?”

“I know both from helping Ms.Turner in the mornings.” Hazel offered. “The Stone is meant to look rustic. Most of it is decorated like a cave with the exception of the bathroom, which has a farmhouse aesthetic similar to the Turner’s house in Georgia. The Arrow looks like a French palace, with a stained glass butterfly in the bathroom.”

“A butterfly?” Aubrey asked in horror.

Maeve spoke for the first time in hours. “I’ve seen it myself. Can you tell us why that matters?”

“The butterfly has a very specific association in Greek mythology with Aphrodite's daughter-in-law Psyche. She was driven to the brink by Aphrodite, given tests impossible for a normal person as a way to prove that she wasn’t good enough for her son Eros. She almost died several times, and she only succeeded because several other gods took pity on her and helped her cheat. I really, really, didn’t want it to be Aphrodite more than anyone else on the list.”

“Is it possible that she’s grown as a person?” Maeve followed up. “If what you’ve saying is true and Genet is secretly Aphrodite, then she’d have hundreds of years where she could have changed into the person we know now.”

Aubrey sank to the floor beside the chalkboard. Her volume gradually rose as she continued her diatribe. “She could’ve…but she wouldn’t need to. If Genet is truly Aphrodite, then she could easily stop being the woman we know and decide to devote herself to making one of us miserable. She could change her mind so often that she had dozens of titles and epithets developed in different places or time periods. Now, she acts like Philomedes, but who's to say that’ll last forever? Skotia was her name as a goddess of lost love, and Andophagos was her name as a goddess of vengeance against those that betray the ones they love. Timborychos translates to gravedigger, and then on the other end of the spectrum she had a shrine under the name Genetyllis where she was the leader of several fertility goddesses. That’s the problem. Aphrodite has been the worst option on the list because of how mercurial she is.”

Dr.Petrov stood up and moved to check on the mythology expert while most of the others were trying to grapple with the implications of what Aubrey said.

Luna noticed something else. “Genet-yllis?”

There was a puff of smoke in the chair that Maeve had just vacated. “Yes?” Even for Genet, she looked particularly mirthful.

“So it’s true? You’re Aphrodite?”

The host shook her head. “Not really.”

Luna was about to reply again, but Felicia interjected first. “How? We’ve spent hours proving it!”

Genet paused for a moment a moment still smiling, trying to decide where to start.. “Yes. I was Aphrodite. That was a long time ago.

“What’s important to understand is that there’s many sides to love. Love can be obsessive or controlling. Love can be wrathful, at betrayal or in defense of another. Love can be a budding crush or a lifelong partnership. Love pines and love celebrates. Aphrodite always needed to be all of these things. It made her great. It made her terrible. At the time I thought it made her perfect, but I’ve moved on from that.

“There were pushes to punish paganism, and Aphrodite was negligent of the danger that brought to us. My family each found ways to adapt, to concentrate on encouraging their craft to make up for their name becoming less recognizable. Aphrodite didn’t, and so we dwindled slowly over the years. After one artifact and temple was destroyed after another and we didn’t do anything to replace the attention, we were too frail and weak to fix it. My own actions, back when I was part of Aphrodite, would’ve left me to wither and be forgotten.

“But we had people that cared about us, despite things Aphrodite had done to them. My dear husband Vaughn realized what was happening after I stumbled home one evening and he insisted on helping. He marshaled our family, though most of them didn’t have the power to fix me. Even my great-nephew Sonny and all his medical knowledge couldn’t fix Aphrodite, only make us more comfortable as we decayed. So my Producer, Jay, and my great-nephew Herman went out to look for help beyond our immediate family. Herman came back with Hecate, another goddess that Aphrodite had trampled over. When she came to me in her black shroud, I thought it would be to crow at how my poor decisions had finally caught up to me.

But like my husband, she offered me mercy unearned. She suggested that all the smaller aspects of who we were could be separated, and that the focus on each of our elements would allow us to feed more easily. Aphrodite could never live again, but all the ideas that were a part of her could still be salvaged. She, Vaughn, and Sonny created clay and copper vessels for me and the other shards of Aphrodite and spent a decade in surgery, transplanting bits of the old goddess’ soul into the replacement forms. My sisters and I woke to new bodies that had reshaped themselves to who we were on the inside. It was disorienting, learning how to think and move alone without sharing a mind with them.

"Most of them left quickly for their own adventures and schemes. Philomedes and Anosia stuck around for longer than the others, but neither of them were a good fit. So I went home with my husband, and tried to start things over between us.

"That’s how I became independently Genetyllis. I’m still a goddess of love. But I’m focused on the most important kind of love.

“Humans care. You all care so much for each other. Life is so hard for you kids, and you never stop trying anyway. Disasters strike, and you all run into the rubble to look for survivors. You suffer illness and tragedy, and in response you invent medicine and psychology.

“It’s not just the big things that matter either. You all care all the time; you comfort and praise and give each other carefully chosen gifts. Every night, parents read a bedtime story to their child and tuck them into bed. That desire of humanity to care for and nurture each other is strong enough to keep me alive. If all of you kids here and out there on earth were not so good, you couldn't create and sustain an avatar of service and comfort.

"Aphrodite and I were just an idea at the end of the day, a set of stories that gave birth to a person. The universe would've kept going if I hadn't been saved. But like with Pandora, hope remains, and as long as it does I’ll be lucky enough to watch and reward every beautiful act you do for each other."

There was silence for a while. Then Ava spoke. “So you’re a goddess of Acts of Service, like the love language book? Do you have sisters for the other four?”

“No, it’s not quite like that. It’s more that I’m made out of the things that people do for each other, whether an action, a gift, or something more. Using any of my power beyond simply peering into one’s desires requires the belief that what I’m doing is good for someone beyond me.”

“All those bad things Aubrey said you did aren’t true, right? I know God of Battle isn’t an accurate source, but literally every story I’ve heard from either gaming or today has been about you taking advantage of people. That thing with Psyche especially, I couldn’t imagine you torturing anyone.”

“Technically, the case with Psyche is a bit more nuanced.” Aubrey tried to help. “She asked Aphrodite what it would take for the goddess to trust her again with Eros, and she had the option to back out if she was willing to give up her claim to him. It wasn’t until she repeatedly tried to kill herself in despair that the other gods-”

“Please stop.” Genet shifted in her seat uncomfortably. “Yes, everything you’ve heard is true. I did them as part of Aphrodite. Most of those acts I would not choose to do on my own. Psyche… she hurt my boy, and I wanted to know that she would not or could not do it again. I would ask that we move on from that for now.”

The next questions came from Helena. “If you think you’re a Greek goddess, why hide that? Why hide who the mentors are pretending to be?”

The host nodded, more comfortable with this question. “It was something Vaughn and I came up with after most of the other sisters abandoned him after the splintering. We and our family aren’t good enough to call ourselves gods. It was never a popular sentiment with most of our family, but the next time I hosted a season during the Hundred Years war, I **** anyone who wished to play a part to take a human name to take as a pseudonym. They begrudgingly accepted, and so every few seasons I run they choose a new name. I offered to let Concordia ignore the rule, but she didn’t want special treatment.”

Maeve and Aubrey had both stood back up by the time Genet had finished her monologue, and the therapist had a question as well. “Can you tell us about Ata?”

Genet paused, clearly uncomfortable again. She snapped her fingers, but nothing happened. “I regret that she was brought here. I made sure that she didn’t end up with any of my sisters on their sets, and I’m trying to do what’s best for her when I can.”

“Can you tell us more about what things are like for her day to day?”

“No.” Genet said bluntly. “I’m sorry. This was harder than I was expecting this morning. I’ll see everyone at dinner in a couple of hours, but for now I’m going up to my apartment to check on Stella.” She snapped her fingers again, and this time disappeared in a puff of perfume.

Silence fell again with her absence for a moment. Ava had enough of her questions answered to not interject this time. Most of the others were still trying to digest the information that had just been dumped on them.

“So what do we do now?” Luna asked. “We know her big secret, but does it actually change anything?”

“I’d say no.” Helena offered in response. “Whatever character she’s pretending to be, she’s still Genet. Like you and a few others were saying before she showed up, she’s not an aggressive person. She’s naive, impulsive, and agonizingly cloying, but not intentionally cruel. I’d argue if anyone is judging her to give her a second chance. Since she’s themed things off of old myths, it might be good for the rest of us to research them like Aubrey has been, but I don’t think it needs to change anything.”

“I know I need to research.” Ava agreed. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the back trying to learn more.” She reached Aubrey for a random book from the mythology shelf and left the room.

Maeve motioned out, and she and Luna crossed the hall. They began talking together, the details inaudible to anyone else under the building's silence enchantments.

Helena and Hazel got up to leave together next, only to be stopped by the last voice that one of them wanted to hear.

“Hey, can you stay for a minute?” Felicia asked.

They both turned around, Helena crossing her arms. “What?”

“I know you have a problem with me. I haven’t really cared for a while, since I know that some people just don’t get along. But I got this thing from the shop, where my mentor can send me clues about what she thinks would be best for me to do. Ever since I bought it, it’s been telling me to take you to Murphy’s and try to work things out. What do you say to that? I figure that worst case scenario, we can air our grievances openly and figure out where we stand.”

No. I’d rather claw out an eye than have to spend a day with you. The others like you and most of them like me, I don’t see any reason we need to get along since I’ll need to protect him from you eventually.

But Helena let that stay an inside thought. Remembering the homework that she received this morning to try spending time with his friends and be direct, she instead said. “I can give you a chance, if you really want that. But I want to bring a couple other people too.”

“I can come.” Aubrey offered.

Shit. Hel thought, the situation growing worse. She liked Aubrey quite a bit more than Felicia, but there was no polite and direct way to tell the other blonde that she didn’t want her at a bar. “And Hazel.”

“I’ll be with Mr.Turner most of the day.” Hazel gently reminded her boss.

Right. This really can’t get worse.

“What about Luna or Stella?” Felicia asked. “Either of them seem to get along well enough with both of us.”

“Sure. Whichever one is more open tomorrow.” The billionaire reluctantly agreed.

“Then I’ll see you then.”

Helena nodded, before beginning to walk away and letting Hazel follow. They left the library, the redhead letting herself stew.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am.”

“You’re fine, Hazel.”

“Would you like me to help you get out of it?”

“No, I…It’s a good idea, I just don’t like it. Can I ask you for something else?”

“Anything.”

“Take me down to the gun range.”

“As you wish.”