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Chapter 10 by ThomasMoro ThomasMoro

What happens to Diana next?

She gets moved

The first thing Diana felt as a naked statue was embarrassment that she allowed herself to be converted so easily.

The second thing she felt was anger that Persephone did not even try to warn her about the gorgon until it was too late.

The third and most overwhelming thing she felt was frustration about not being able to do anything about it. She could not move her legs. She could not move her arms. She could not even blink her eyes. And she definitely could not move her hands which meant that all of her naked body was on view to anyone in the Underworld who wanted to look at it.

If she had thought ahead, she would have seen to it that she was at least petrified in a more modest position like the classical pudica pose in which one hand covered her bosom and the other her vagina. Then again, if she had thought ahead, she never would been turned to stone in the first place.

Diana kept hoping that Persephone would do something about her condition but apart from asking one of her handmaidens to dust Diana on a regular basis, she did not seem to care that much about Diana's transformation.

It was not until a week later that Persephone actually lifted a finger to do anything more for Diana and when she did, it was to summon a group of handmaidens to drag the statue Diana had become into a separate part of the underworld.

"Why are you bringing that thing over here?" asked a tall brunette with a yellowish complexion.

"I thought you might like another nude statue, Phryne," said Persephone. "I have a whole collection of them and I think Hades would be a bit suspicious if I added yet another one to the collection."

"Hey," said the woman called Phryne, "it's not my fault that you hit on more women while your husband's away than poor Sappho ever had the chance to do in her lifetime. Anyway, I never collected nude statues; I just posed for them."

"So you're saying you wouldn't want to please me and take this statue off my hands?" said Persephone.

"I'm not saying that," said Phryne quite hurriedly. "Just that said statue would be better appreciated if, say, you gave it to Sappho. That type of sculpture is more to her taste, anyway."

"Well, yes, you're right, of course," said Persephone. "But Sappho has been so tiresome as of late. Especially since I mocked her story about the time she met that naked time-traveler with the funny name. What was it again? Oh, right. Clara Oswald. I always thought she made it up but I never could get her to admit it."

"So who made this statue, anyway?" asked Phryne, trying to change the subject. "None of the sculptors I know down here have been doing any new work."

"Oh, it was the work of a gorgon," said Persephone. "Every so often, one of them gets loose and inadvertently turns to stone one of my recent visitors. It's such a pain to deal with."

"Shouldn't you try to keep those gorgons in a more secure location to prevent that sort of thing from happening?" asked Phryne.

"Do I tell you how to run your business, Phryne?" asked Persephone.

"Well, technically I'm retired," said Phryne, "but no, you don't. But still -- if the statue was made by a gorgon, don't you as a goddess have the power to reverse that transformation? That way you don't have to worry about hiding a nude statue from your husband."

"Excellent idea, Phryne," said Persephone. "How do I do that?"

"Don't you know?" asked Phryne.

"Well, just because I'm the Queen of the Underworld doesn't mean I know everything," said Persephone.

"Can't you go look it up on a scroll or something like that?"

Persephone just pouted and stomped her feet. "But that sounds so boring. And anyway, I'm pretty sure I would come across a reverse-gorgon spell if it had ever been written down."

"Why don't you ask your mother, the goddess Demeter, for help?" asked Phryne.

"Another excellent idea," said Persephone. "I'll do that."

Just then the sounds of distant dogs barking alerted Persephone that she had a visitor.

"That must be Mom now," said Persephone. "She always shows up this time of year but she always shows up so soon."

"Well, she's your mom," said Phryne, trying like Tartarus not to sound too snarky. "Why don't you tell her about the naked statue?"

"The what?' asked Persephone.

Then she glanced at Diana's naked form and said, "Oh, right!"

She gestured for the handmaidens to follow her with the statue of Diana and ran off to meet her mother.

Does Demeter help Diana?

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