Why were the Fates so cruel to them, to her? She always did as ordered, as advised by the gods. Yet it all led to nothing but disaster for her people. Listen to goddess Athena and save their men, only for the men to not want to return home ever again. Listen to the messenger of Aphrodite, who was a hidden monster, only to cry over the corpses of men who should have saved her island.
So, when she thought that everything was already lost when no hope was left, when she finally acknowledged that the island would die with them. The miracle did happen. Another ship, this one even bigger than the last one, full of weary men arrived on the island. She refused to believe the news until she saw it with her own two eyes.
Here they were. A lot of men, young and old, strong and weak, clearly not the heroic types of adventures their island was blessed and cursed a few days ago. But that did not matter, in reality, this was even better. After all, all of them were tired from the perilous journey. Give them food and wine and they certainly would be pliable to do whatever the women of the island wanted them to do. Even better, since their supplies must have run out, the men would be more than thankful. And the thing that her people wanted in exchange for supplies was not even that difficult to do.
Except she would have to make sure, that none of her people did anything, that could scare the men as much as they did with the previous crew. And looking around, she could see a horde of predators ready to pounce on the unsuspecting poor victims. That would not do, they needed the men alive, not torn to pieces.
"I'm Queen Hypsipyle of Lemnos, please follow me, weary travelers," she said
"A thousand thanks, lady Hypsipyle, without your hospitality we would have died," the leader of the men said.
"No need to thank me?" said the queen wanting to know the man's name.
"Ah, yes. My name is Laios of Lesbos," the leader of the men introduced himself.
"And what led you to our island, Laios of Lesbos?" asked the queen.
"The search for our savior, lady Arachne. Let me tell you more about her," said the Weaver.
Wasn't it a nice day for him? If just arriving on the island full of women, was not enough, the islanders were also more than eager to hear about his lady Arachne. This was an opportunity he could not miss, to spread his beliefs further. This way he, himself, might become a High Weaver. After all why not? Here on Lemnos, they would not have to hide from other people, since the queen told him, that all known gods betrayed them and people refused to believe in those deceivers. Lemnos could become a whole island dedicated only to their lady. How brilliant!
She has returned to her lover sad and angry, but not completely empty-handed. While she was sad, that she could not meet her daughter just yet, all hope was not lost. And angry because she just witnessed the idiocy of humanity. She was angry at humans for being so stupid, she was angry at Olympians for not doing anything about and lastly at herself for not having the courage and power to rebel against this stupid system.
But all that would have to wait, as she just arrived to meet Aphrodite. And the moment she entered Aphrodite's residence, her lover immediately smiled and swooped her into the embrace. They both stood there like this for a while.
"Better?" asked Aphrodite after several minutes.
"Better. How did you know?" Nike asked back.
"You were taking too long," answered the goddess of love.
After this Aphrodite let go of her lover, inquiring about more things about the search, Arachne and several other things. And Nike did answer everything she could. About Arachne leaving the island before she managed to arrive there, about how funny, could the islander's reaction be, if they were not so infuriating. About how she found out, that her daughter has somehow managed to gather a cult of worship. That made Aphrodite laugh. She also told her lover, about the young woman she found and healed. Aphrodite shared her view, that something would have to be done about this human stupidity. And promised that she would come up with a plan on how to convince other Olympians to solve the problem.
In return, Aphrodite told her one true lover about, what idiocy Ares managed to come up with. How he somehow recreated Amazons and even somehow managed to make them "better", at least according to his own words.
"Aren't they going to become a problem for Arachne?" questioned a slightly worried Nike.
"With how easily she managed to deal with Athena? I highly doubt that even the upgraded Amazons could become a problem for her. More of annoyance if anything," said confidently Aphrodite.
"Are you sure?" said the uplifted goddess, slightly doubting her lover's claims.
"Around 91%, yes," reaffirmed her statement, the other goddess.
Although looking at her lover, Aphrodite could see that she still doubted those claims. Even a high percentage did not manage to convince her lover from doubting.
"Fine, I'll do something about it, my love. The Amazons of Ares making, they should be easy to distract... Hmm, throw some hero their way, make their leader fall in love? What do you think?" Aphrodite raised an eyebrow at her loved one.
"Too simple of a plan. It is not going to work," said flatly Nike.
"While it is true that no plan survives the meeting with the enemy. When dealing with idiots, you need a foolproof plan. Hence why it is so simple, my love," explained Aphrodite with a smile on her face.
Nike just smiled at that statement and decided not to comment on it any further. Just enjoyed her lover's presence. But that was not to last, as Nike winced.
"What is it?" questioned Aphrodite.
"Looks like the big boss is calling... I have to go," explained Nike.
But before the uplifted mortal departed, she left the spider silk sheet and severed the giant spider leg with Aphrodite. Asking her to keep the "mementos" safe. The goddess of love just grimaced at the morbid souvenirs.
It took her only a few short moments to get here, from her lover's place. Not that she was too eager, but to keep her appearance, she was forced to play the role of an obedient little soldier.
"Zeus, sir," she said the moment she entered the throne room of Olympus.
"Nike, did the search for the spider monster, not yield any results?" asked eagerly Zeus.
"No, sir. It left before I managed to arrive on the island of Lemnos. And the locals were not exactly helpful, with pointing me in the direction it left. After that, I searched a radius around the island, I could afford at the time, but found nothing," given her report Nike.
"That is not ideal," murmured Zeus.
"I will immediately go and try to track it down, sir," volunteered ardently Nike.
"No, I have another task for you that takes more priority. I need you, to go to Hades and look after the Argonauts, until the Golden Fleece is recovered," explained Zeus sighing heavily from thinking about how idiotic the Argonauts could be.
"Sir?" asked Nike confused.
"Yes... While they are more than able. With what happened on Lemnos, I need someone to steer them in the right direction, which does not lead to any more delays," explained Zeus.
"Yes, sir," said the uplifted human.
She was angry, but at this very moment, she could do nothing about it. She could not lash out at the morron in front of her, nor she could scream. This way she would not be able to search for Arachne! Damn it!
Surprisingly, on my way from Imnos, no more unexpected things happened. No more pirates, no monsters to try to chew on my ship, not even freaky weather. And with the land approaching I dreaded, what sort of unreasonable stupidity would Being X would throw my way this time. Even if he had yet to make an appearance of himself, to gloat to me, I was certain that the events I encountered in the last few days were not coincidence, but rather of his making. Therefore a healthy dose of paranoia was necessary for my further survival.
And yet, nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. Was my old paranoia, which I gained during my second life as a magical soldier, acting up. Or was Being X trying to lure me into a false sense of security, only to pull the rug from under my feet the moment I landed on the mainland? That, I could not know, so to be prepared I ordered the guardswomen, my new meatshields to be ready for an attack, the moment we landed.
Shouting out the orders, and how to position themselves, the women secured the perimeter around the ship in a surprisingly short time. Something I would not expect from people with no official military training. Yet, they all worked together like a well-oiled machine. Admittedly, there was quite a lot of untapped potential, it seemed. Now it would be a sin, or rather an utter waste, not to train them any further.
On the other hand, training these people would be an investment of time on my part. Something I did not know, would have many returns, given the fact that I lived for centuries and these people would live for only a few more decades at best. Maybe teach them how to teach the next generations?
And yet, not to increase their human capital, the value of these human resources, would be a waste. Moreover, it would be a sign of my failure as a human resource manager and all the knowledge I gained in the training corps, in my second life, would go to waste.
It seemed that there was no other choice, but to train my new meatshields into competent warriors. Alas, there was no time to set up a proper training camp for them. I would have to train them on the march. However that should increase their stamina, so it was not a complete loss. Looking at them, how eager they seemed, I regretted only one thing and that was the lack of artillery in this time and age.
He was still lone awake, late in the night. Like many other islanders, he was also part of the cult of Arachne. For years he has been just a basic acolyte - an underling at best. But all of that changed several days ago. When the new High Weaver came to power. With him as their leader, many of the old traditions were being abolished at a very fast pace. And he, the soon-to-be Weaver, an upper rank in their cult, would use the new opportunity to his advantage. All he had to do was to remove one of the still opposing Weavers and the position would be his. And that was why he was so late up and awake and scheming another's demise.
Silently, like a thieve, he made his way to his target's house. The man was old anyway, so it would not be a great loss. But this way, taking care of the matter personally, he would be guaranteed the position of a Weaver, especially should he recover the old man's mask.
Trying the doors, he surprisingly easily slipped in. Maybe even too easily, yet he already made his decision, so no stopping there. But only after a few short silent steps, he stumbled to the ground, falling over something big. Of course, he made noise as he fell, expecting to wake up the owner of the house.
But that did not happen. Instead, when looking around he saw only dim red light eluminating human-sized worm! That was the thing he stumbled over. He wanted to scream from the horror he witnessed, only to be prevented from doing so when the worm lightened up into bright red and yellow and pounced swiftly on him, faster than its form would suggest it could.
M̷̛̱͑́͆͝ǫ̴͚͈̞͖̯̦̰̅̍͑̏̂͊͌̓̓͌̊̎͆̾͠ͅŕ̷͎͇̩̤̜̊́́͒̀̌͆̆͂̓̓̂͜ë̸̹̭̖́͂͊̕!̴̢̼̹̫̹̙̟̝̌̓̂̐̎͌ ̵̼̯̜͈̱̥̳̲͔͔̺͓͚͉͉͑͑̆̈̀͗͗̽̓͐̎͋͋͠F̶̧̛̦̤̪̟͈͔͙̭̓̋̈́͆̓̓̈́̀̊̇̇̃͘͠ȩ̵̖̻́̽͌͛̀̊̐̇̑̉̚͠è̵̡̘̘̜̫̜̞̔ḑ̴̝̌̈̓͌̈̀̚͘͝ ̴̯̆̈̀̈͗̓̈́̽̄̄̎͆͐̚m̶̩͙̓̆̓̿̊̋͌͘̚ǫ̸̡̡̙͔̩̘͈̜̞̐̅̅̋̓̌̏̀r̸̙̹̬̯͒̈́͐́͌̍ę̶̛͇͚̝̮̹̓͛̐̆̈́͒̚͠͠!̷̛̗̞̻͓̝͈̙̣̂̓͛̅̆̈́͐
Only snapping sounds of bones breaking and squelching of rupturing organs could be heard for a short moment.