You should’ve faked an illness.

The second Paige Bueckers strolled into the Wings media room with a Gatorade in one hand, that stupid smirk on her face, and her blonde hair tied in a messy bun—you knew this was a setup.

"Where do you want me, boss?" she asked, all lazy confidence as she spun a chair with her foot and flopped into it, legs spread way too casually.

You didn’t answer.

You were too busy mentally preparing yourself to survive this.

This was supposed to be simple. A quick “10 Questions with Paige Bueckers” segment. You’d already filmed one with Maddy and another with JJ. Easy. Done. Posted.

"Mic me up," she said, leaning forward, chin in hand. “Unless you’d rather just whisper the questions into my ear.”

Your hands paused mid-reach toward the mic pack.

“Paige.”

“Just trying to set the mood.”

“This is a Wings-sponsored Q&A, not a date night.”

She smirked. “Yet.”

You made a noise in the back of your throat that wasn’t human and stepped back like she was contagious.

“Alright,” you muttered, trying to sound normal, “today’s content is just a quick round of fan questions. Keep it light, short answers, and—please—don’t flirt with the camera.”

She smirked. “So it’s only okay if I flirt with you?”

You stared at her.

She stared back.

“…Cut,” you said, even though you hadn’t even started filming yet.

Paige just laughed again, like this was a game and she was winning.

And maybe she was.

You tapped record.

"Okay. ‘10 Questions with Paige Bueckers.’ Let’s go."

She gave the camera a smolder like she was filming a perfume ad. “Hit me.”

Question 1: Favorite teammate?

"Hard one. I’d say Arike, but she never passes me the aux,” Paige said, then turned to look directly at you. “So… probably our media girl. She makes me look good. And she blushes real easily.”

You choked on your spit.

“Excuse me—”

She held her hands up. “Just facts.”

“No, that is not—”

"You’re literally blushing right now."

You smacked your hand over your cheek. “That’s—because the lights are hot.”

“It’s LED lighting, babe.”

You moved to the next question, your voice higher than usual.

Question 2: Go-to hype song?

Paige tapped her chin, then pointed at you. “You remember that playlist you made for the team? You’ve got good taste, so any of those.”

You blinked. “How do you know I made it?”

“Because the title was ‘Wings But Make It Hot.’”

You physically turned away from her and muttered, “...I'm gonna quit.”

She grinned. “No you won't.”

Question 3: Pre-game ritual?

“I get taped, I pray, and I listen to music,” she said. Then added, “Sometimes I scroll through our social media. Gotta admire the work of my favorite content creator.”

“Paige.”

“What? I’m supporting the brand.”

You refused to look up. She was definitely smirking.

Question 4: Funniest teammate?

“Zaza,” she said. “But the funniest moments? When you trip over wires trying to avoid making eye contact with me.”

You clenched your clipboard.

“Next question.”

Question 5: Dream brand collab?

“Chipotle,” Paige said, finally giving you one clean answer—until she added: “Or Allure, so I can do one of those ‘Get Ready With Me’ featuring you sitting in my lap.”

You made an audible wheeze.

“Paige, what is wrong with you?!”

She just shrugged.

Question 6: Favorite W moment so far?

She actually went still for a second. “First home win. Packed crowd. Everyone standing.”

You eased a little.

Then she glanced at you.

“And you were on the baseline, smiling like it was your win. I remember that more than the final score.”

You immediately dropped your pen.

“Oh my God—”

“I’m just being honest!”

“You’re being insufferable!”

Question 7: Most embarrassing moment?

Paige laughed instantly. “I tripped going up the tunnel once and tried to play it off like I meant to. You caught it on camera, didn’t you?”

“I may have… saved the footage.”

She raised a brow. “For blackmail?”

“…For bloopers.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, not believing you for a second.

Question 8: Hidden talent?

She leaned forward again, voice low. “I’m really, really good at flustering pretty girls.”

You stared at her.

“I swear to God, Paige—”

“What? You literally just backed up like I was going to kiss you.”

“I—You—Stop TALKING.”

Question 9: Three words to describe yourself?

She thought for a second.

Then said, slowly, “Talented. Clutch. Yours.”

You didn’t move.

The room went silent.

“…Nope.” You stood. “Nope nope nope. Go send Arike in. I need someone who can give me an actual video before I throw this mic into a wall.”

Paige blinked. “What I'm doing good!”

“I’m trying to do my job,” you snapped, flustered and furious. “And I get it, you think this is fun—but I’ve got sponsors on my back and deadlines and league guidelines to follow, and I can’t spend the rest of the day editing around your flirting just because you think it’s cute!”

She didn’t move.

You sighed, running your hands down your face. “Just—please. Go get Arike.”

A pause.

Then Paige stood.

But instead of leaving, she quietly sat back down, posture perfect.

“Run it again,” she said.

You blinked. “What?”

“I’ll answer them straight. No games.”

You hesitated.

Then, reluctantly, hit record.

And just like that—she was perfect.

Question 1 (redo): “Arike. Her energy’s wild but she’s always got your back.”

Question 2: “Marvin Sapp, or some Drake.”

Question 3: “Pray. Visualize. Lock in.”

Question 4: “Zaza. No contest.”

Question 5: “Chipotle.”

Question 6: “First home game win. That crowd…”

Question 7: “Tripped in the tunnel. Very humbling.”

Question 8: “I can rap, do impressions, and cook a mean breakfast sandwich.”

Question 9: “Focused. Grateful. Competitive.”

You stared at her, stunned.

She just looked at you like nothing happened.

Until the last one.

Question 10: Message for the fans?

She looked into the lens.

“Thank you for showing up for us. Every game. Every post. Every jersey sale. You make this matter. We see you. We feel it. And we play for you.”

A beat.

“And I know this might get edited out,” she added suddenly, gaze flicking off-camera—to you, “but if you think I’m gonna stop flirting with the cutest girl on this team just because she asked me to be serious for five minutes… she clearly doesn’t know me that well yet.”

You slammed the stop button on the camera. “Paige.”

She stood, grinning like she just hit a game-winner.

“Love when you say my name like that.”

You pressed your hands to your face. “I hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

And the worst part?

You didn’t.

Not even a little.

​Unfortunately for her, Paige was one of those whose body would melt into the warm earth, whose soul would be lost in the mountains of Aeolia.

​Nothingness would be her one and only kiss.

​Her face, however, would never truly perish. Because Paige had nothing ordinary about her in the eyes of the Greeks. Here, she was exotic. She was the foreigner, the one who fought bareheaded.

​What had just happened, on the other hand, was far too ordinary in this world.

​She had just died, joining the ether.

​

☾

​“I don’t understand.”

​Clad in a painfully rough gray toga, Paige swallowed hard, crushed beneath the presence of the god of departed souls, Hades himself. He lounged on an immense throne made of black marble and human bones, shattered fragments of skeletons disappearing into immutable stone. One had to admit that the combination of these materials created a striking spectacle, a tomb both unbreakable and fleeting.

​The vast hall with its oversized columns, drowned in a subtle haze, oppressed the young soldier. The cold stone walls were covered in reddish tapestries depicting harrowing scenes. Torture and death intertwined there, feeding the eternal and solitary thirst of the king of the Underworld.

​“You have been summoned,” the god replied.

​Hades was neither handsome nor ugly. His tall, dark figure with its severe yet not cruel gaze had the stillness of a statue. In truth, the underworld suited him too well, for a light both vivid and extinguished emanated from him.

​Paige reflected that, like the afterlife itself, Hades inspired the same feelings: a mix of terror, relief, and curiosity.

​His posture, his presence, and this environment painted him as the divine being the world above strove to honor. For whoever forgot Hades forgot themselves.

​Paige was pulled from her thoughts by the arrival of a woman, absolutely magnificent, in the hall. She made no sound, appearing through a broken archway, but her mere presence disturbed the atmosphere. The air grew heavier.

​“Hades, thank you,” she said, and her voice brushed against the walls.

​Her tone was deep and syrupy, sending vibrations that seemed to rise from both earth and sky, as if her essence were more precious than the entire palace, than life, than death.

​As she smiled faintly, her slender body approached in spectral silence. Her face was adorned with large black eyes and blood-red lips, framed by long ebony hair flowing down her back like soot over her midnight-blue toga, studded with gems and star-like ornaments. Thin gamma-shaped earrings stood out against her locks. But what caught the soldier’s attention most was her right arm. It was covered by a purple shawl whose fabric shimmered strangely as it molded itself to the goddess’s limb, like an evanescent armor.

​Paige felt a deep fascination for that veil.

​“Nyx,” Hades greeted.

​She gave a simple nod to the king of the Underworld, who did not seem offended by her slightly superior manners. Curious, Paige searched the newcomer’s storm-dark eyes as they drifted across the room without much interest, betraying a certain weariness.

​And as if the place had nothing more to offer her, the goddess suddenly studied the tall figure of the soldier. Never had Paige felt so scrutinized, pierced by such a probing gaze.

​“That’s her,” she said.

​Her voice cast shadows beneath the dead woman’s eyelids, now closed.

​“Yes,” Hades confirmed. “She has nothing.”

​Drawn to Paige’s abandoned face, Nyx slightly moved her lips, then breathed:

​“She’s almost beautiful.”

​“Surely.”

​The goddess ignored Hades, who once again did not react. She kept staring at the young woman, her eyes burning with a misty glow.

​“Soldier. Do you know who I am?” she suddenly demanded.

​Paige opened her eyes and fixed a sharp stare on the woman, impassive.

​“Goddess of Night, born of Chaos, with Erebus, god of Darkness,” she declared in a sepulchral, slightly disembodied voice.

​Fear had that effect on her. It made her more subdued than she truly was at that moment.

​“How did you cross the Styx, Paige?” she asked gently.

​The young woman widened her blue eyes.

​She knew her name. And now that she thought about it… she had paid nothing. She had arrived directly in this vast, empty hall without understanding how. Then she had waited, waited, beneath the curious and emotionless gaze of the god of the Dead.

​According to Greek belief, all souls who entered the afterlife were required to pay their passage across the Styx. For this reason, at funerals, a drachma was placed beneath the tongue of the deceased, a cold coin made of bronze, silver, or gold.

​Those deprived of burial rites, abandoned until they became nothing more than piles of dusty, putrefying flesh, would wait eternally on the banks of the Styx, souls condemned to wander for the rest of time, staring into that black water at a land they would probably never tread.

​To be honest, Paige seriously doubted she would ever have a grave among humans.

​“I... I… I don’t know… I didn’t think that…”

​“You have drawn the attention of one of my children,” the goddess interrupted. “Do you think you know who?”

​The abrupt change of subject unsettled the young warrior, whose heart suddenly began to race.

​Nyx was one of the oldest deities in this world. She had given birth to countless beings, dark, fascinating, and relentless creatures. Paige was not certain she knew the full extent of this incredible figure’s lineage. It would almost be a miracle. Some of her children’s affiliations were even disputed, born sometimes alone, sometimes with other gods.

​Her silence spoke for her. She did not know. She knew nothing.

​“Nemesis,” Nyx declared without emotion.

​Nemesis.

​This goddess condemned all those who committed hubris, that foolish mistake of thinking oneself above others, of no longer believing oneself human and rising to divine status. Nemesis was justice in shadow. She hunted unpunished crimes. Many feared this guardian of the night, known for her resentment toward scavengers, those who fought for a place in this world splashed with crimson sap.

​Paige knew one thing. Nemesis’s punishments were worse than Tartarus itself. She had never imagined she could incur the wrath of such a cold, severe goddess. What could she possibly have done in life?

​She thought she would remain forever in the Fields of Asphodel.

​Perhaps her excess of yellow bile, which gave her terrible fits of rage, had made her punishable in the eyes of the goddess known for her merciless morality. She knew irrational anger was adored by some gods and hated by others. And Paige had rage.

​“The goddess of Vengeance,” she murmured.

​Nyx smiled faintly and searched Paige’s gaze.

​“Does her name frighten you?” she asked.

“It would be foolish not to fear it.”

“That’s true. All my sons and daughters are to be feared.”

​Paige could only agree silently. There was Hypnos, Thanatos, Eris. The list was long. These divinities resembled terrible nocturnal beings hidden within the torments of night. The only one who seemed less threatening to her was Elpis, goddess of Hope, according to her faint memories.

​Night was perhaps not only a symbol of suffering, hatred, and affliction.

​“Nemesis is waiting for you in her chambers. Follow me.”

​Swallowing hard, the young soldier nodded. She bowed as respectfully as possible before Hades, it was better not to offend the king of the Underworld, then followed the goddess of Night as she slipped through a small archway.

​“We’re taking another door?” Paige asked timidly as she followed.

“A more discreet one, yes,” Nyx confirmed.

​Paige nodded silently behind her and focused on following the goddess’s steps. She kept a respectful distance, her gaze lost in Nyx’s dark hair swaying gently with her languid stride. A cold silence surrounded them, broken only by the echo of their footsteps on dry stone. Paige observed the long corridors draped in the same tapestries as the walls of Hades’s throne room. She was not surprised by the decor.

​One thing did surprise her, however. The absolute quiet of the place.

​“I imagined this palace less deserted.”

​Nyx ignored her for a moment before letting out a short laugh.

​“So you look me in the eyes and speak to me. Come walk beside me if you want an answer, Paige.”

​Paige blushed slightly. She probably should not have spoken. Still, after a long inner struggle, she quickened her pace to walk beside Nyx, even stealing a hesitant glance at her.

​But the goddess remained silent until they exited the palace. Then, as they descended a squat staircase bordered by black granite railings, she exhaled.

​“I must admit I do not like this place much. We took the least frequented wing, and the ugliest, I’m sorry. I prefer to avoid the few residents here.”

“Why?”

​They reached the garden where Kore, now Persephone, spent half the year. The place was empty, since humans were living through summer and the child had gone to reunite with her mother, Demeter, to scatter the world with colors, flowers, and sky-blue laughter.

​When Nyx answered, Paige emerged from her hazy thoughts.

​“Their flattery and syrupy looks irritate me. As a divinity older than this world itself, I have rights over Hades, and I am respected here. Even feared.”

​The young soldier swallowed.

​“Really? And w-what is that right?”

​Nyx glanced sideways at her, betraying a deep hesitation, perhaps over revealing such a thing.

​“I can take any soul from him. Even those condemned to Tartarus.”

​Paige frowned, deeply shaken by this revelation.

​They walked for a long time, past other gardens and the edge of a vast dark forest. The landscape here was nothing but night and shadow, but Paige barely noticed her surroundings. In truth, her gaze kept returning to the shawl covering the goddess’s arm. When Nyx noticed, she reacted strangely. She pulled the fabric higher on her skin and covered it with her left arm, pale as a newborn moon.

​“I know,” she murmured without looking back.

​Paige studied her proud, straight, impenetrable profile. What did those words mean? She herself did not understand the sudden racing of her heart, her slightly broken breathing, the strange tingling in her head.

​For a simple piece of fabric.

​“Do not touch it. Never without my permission,” Nyx warned authoritatively.

​There was something chilling in that command. The goddess’s voice demanded absolute obedience. To reassure her, Paige nodded, though her eyes still drifted too often toward the shawl. If Nyx noticed, she said nothing.

​Yet it seemed to Paige that the purple veil, with its fleeting reflections, burned brighter beneath her gaze. She wanted to drape it over her head like the virgins who prayed to their mother goddess, offered on temple floors. She wanted to undress, let the delicate fabric caress her skin until trance took her, bathed in lunar rays.

​These thoughts imprisoned her mind for the rest of the walk, so much so that when they arrived, the young soldier surfaced with difficulty.

​Nyx and Paige stood at the base of a tall stone tower. On the roof, Paige thought she saw someone, a thin silhouette cut against the pale dark horizon, likely wrapped in red.

​Then a hidden staircase burst from the wall, spiraling evenly around the building. Stunned by the ingenuity of the mechanism, Paige stood frozen.

​“I suggest you hurry. Nemesis does not like dreamers,” Nyx teased as she went ahead.

​Paige followed without delay.

​The climb was not difficult for either of them. Strangely, Nyx did not seem tired. She was stronger than she appeared.

​At the top, the goddess and the soldier discovered not one but two presences. There was a young woman and another woman. The latter, dressed in white, lay on a small green Empire-style couch, visibly exhausted. When Nyx approached, she lifted her eyelids, sat up, and life returned faintly to her pale face. Paige, frozen on the last step, could not keep looking at her.

​Because she felt drawn by another gaze, heavier, more mercurial. That gaze had fallen upon her.

​It was the young woman who was watching her.

​She wore a long blood-red toga held by a thick black belt around her hips. Her bare arms revealed light brown skin and lean muscles, ending in long elegant fingers. Paige observed those fingers with their clean nails before lifting her eyes to the woman’s faintly mocking face.

​Never had Paige seen a more beautiful face than hers.

Those features deserved to be carved into marble, into earth, into ice.

​Slightly long black curls framed a perfect face with warm brown skin. The eyelids looked almost glossy, but it was the eyes that captured Paige’s. Deep pools of brown, burning obsidian, casting dark silk all around her. Even her beauty marks made her superior. Paige studied the one beneath her left nostril and the other on the edge of her lower lip.

​She felt as though she, too, were being examined.

​Their gazes refused to break apart.

​“Leave,” the goddess whispered without taking her eyes off Paige.

​Paige gasped in surprise. That voice flowed like nectar, low and rumbling like a storm forming, a discreet but ravenous tempest.

​Who was she to command Nyx? Was she her sister, Gaïa, goddess of earth? Paige did not know, because both figures obeyed, disappearing through a shadowed archway inside the tower. It was strange. They had yielded willingly to this woman’s demand.

​“Take off that awful cloth.”

​The order tore Paige from her thoughts. Startled, she blinked. That gaze, that presence, the entirety of this goddess (she guessed) drained her energy. Paige swallowed, temples pounding. In that moment, her warrior courage felt like an unwanted memory.

​“What are you waiting for?” the goddess insisted.

​Paige wanted to say no. She did not see why she should undress before this being, this master of the place who stared at her with despotic eyes.

​“Who are you?”

​The woman reacted strangely. She merely narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips together sharply. Those restrained movements contrasted with the violence radiating from her gaze. Paige felt crushed by a fury that was not her own.

​“I asked Nyx for you.”

“She only told me about Nemesis,” Paige whispered, confused.

“Then you don’t need my answer. Now undress.”

​Paige no longer understood anything. Searching for an anchor, anything to steady herself, her gaze dropped instinctively to the stone floor.

​That was when she noticed a carpet of miraculous splendor. The colors were dull and garish, yet their combination stirred something intimate inside her, drowned in worn pearl gray, Persian blue, and orpiment yellow. Without understanding or controlling herself, she saw herself lying on her back on that rug, lost in the depths of pleasure, body slick with sweat, eyelids heavy with orgasm, her voice brushing the clouds.

​Paige flushed.

​Breaking free from the goddess’s crushing stare, she studied the surroundings. There, beneath the stars, in open air, she felt as though she were in a minimalist salon, scattered with veils, that mysterious rug, and rich yet sparse furniture.

​Her gaze rose to a chestnut wood table leg. A mirror rested on this makeshift altar. Examining it, Paige noticed its frame was inlaid with diamond narcissus flowers.

​Narcissus.

The mirror.

​“Y-you are… Nemesis?”

​The goddess never parted with this artifact through which she revealed true faces. Paige had to admit that, given the goddess’s ruthless nature, she once thought the deity of vengeance was a man.

​Paige swallowed before returning to the woman’s severe, silent face. Then, reluctantly, she obeyed, fully aware of her vulnerability.

​Her hands hesitated, then grasped the coarse fabric and removed it. Her naked body was revealed in mystical moonlit opalescence.

​She was cold. And this world of night opened before her from atop the tower.

​Nemesis stepped closer and slowly circled the young soldier.

​Then Paige felt that dark gaze against her skin, that bark slightly ambered by the sun after hours spent trampling the tall grasses of the Aeolian mountains, running between trees and leaves, being whipped by the wind as she fought.

​She felt every part of her being to the extreme. She felt the delicacy of her ankles, the softness of her pale calves, the generous frame of her thighs, the curve of her hips, muscled and round, the release of her body, the bones of her hips, visible and slightly prominent, then the fine ring of her waist, that narrow circle above which her ribs traveled in delicate striations toward her torso. She felt the flesh of her stomach, her navel pulling with strange sensations inside her, the structure of her shoulders, and her arms descending along her slender silhouette like resting swords.

​Bathed in these sensations, the soldier barely noticed the clean appearance of her skin.

​When she looked down at herself, she detected no trace of wounds, only a few scars between her ribs and on her arms. Her skin shimmered faintly, as though inlaid with enamel, the result of the long walk she had taken with Nyx.

​“I don’t have any wounds anymore…” she whispered.

​“You were healed. You were given nectar, then you crossed the Styx… Nectar sometimes derails the mind, so perhaps your memories are blurred.”

​Nemesis continued circling her. She seemed so fascinated that Paige wanted to close her eyes, embarrassed. Then she felt a warm breath against her nape, a hand sliding over her bare stomach, a clothed torso brushing her back…

​Nemesis was just behind her. Paige felt the goddess’s strands of hair brush her cheek.

​“You’ve gained some color…” Nemesis murmured into her ear, fingers grazing Paige’s navel, making her shiver slightly.

​And that voice, right against her, flowing like syrup, intimate, suave like a tropical sea, branded her soul with fire. Paige wanted to surrender to this being now pressing her lips against her sensitive lobe.

​Did this goddess know her? Once, she remembered her complexion had been pale, so pale, like those delicate flowers, those lily bushes near which she buried her face, saffron pistils spread across her cheeks, eyelids, and hair.

​When she returned home, her mother laughed and called her my little messy flower.

​“Wh… who are you?” Paige whispered.

​And the goddess seemed to understand. Behind that question, Paige was asking for more than a name.

​“I linger on the edges of crime and lies…”

​The words drifted around them like the fumes of a heady perfume. They stirred Paige’s insides, pressed against her reason, stealing a rushed breath from her.

​“I let my victims embrace themselves in languor…”

​As Nemesis spoke, Paige grew more intoxicated, surrendering, senses blurred and indistinct, lost in a languid fog. Her head loosened, fell back against the goddess’s shoulder, who tightened their hold around her bare waist.

​“…when I seize what they hold most dear.”

​She barely felt the other’s arms tightening around her torso, tighter and tighter, like a predator restraining its prey.

​“Their innocence,” Nemesis finished, suddenly pressing her nose into Paige’s blond hair.

​“Wh…” Paige exhaled, eyes drowned in the infinite black of that underworld.

​“I am Vengeance. The one who devours hubris.”

​And Paige felt, once again, her body being manipulated, loosening, surrendering, collapsing like a fragile rag doll. She had no strength left. Energy abandoned her. Nemesis’s hands asserted themselves over her body, sliding like brambles across her torso, over her breasts.

​Then Paige felt a hand slip backward, a thumb pressing into a point at her lower back, just between her kidneys, above her hips. It kneaded, almost dug into the flesh, scraping her skin with nails, as if searching for something.

​A sensation surged through her.

​Then everything tore away.

​Everything vanished.

​“Azzi…”

​She didn’t even know why she had said that name.

​☾

Small diamonds and rubies spiraled around her torso and waist, like a small metal serpent coiled around her. Clinging to the lines of her silhouette, the garment revealed a waist she had always found too narrow. Her arms were bare, revealing skin faded by traces of sunlit gold. Paige’s thighs were only half covered, the tunic worn short. Finally, she was surprised to feel her feet trapped in thick black leather sandals, their laces climbing her ankles once broken in battle.

​When she finished taking in her attire, she noticed the woman again. This time she stood against the wall. The bed’s veils had been drawn, allowing Paige to see the darkly decorated room. It contained only a red armchair, a wardrobe, and a dresser. Further away, a broken-arch window opened onto a delicate breath of wind.

​Paige turned her attention to the young woman. She now sat in the armchair. Since Paige had not had time to observe her properly atop the tower, she studied her.

​Dressed in a white toga, she wore her long dark-red hair in heavy braids framing an alabaster face. Her caramel eyes blended gold and wood, a fascinating alloy. This woman was beautiful.

​“At last, you’re awake,” she murmured.

​“I…”

​Paige cleared her throat; her voice was hoarse. It had been so long since she had spoken.

​“You slept for over a week. The effects of nectar, no doubt…”

​Her voice was soft, tender, delicate like rose petals.

​“So it really was nectar…”

​The woman let out a gentle laugh that sounded like a small chirp.

​“You’re in a god’s dwelling. What else did you think you’d drink here?”

​Paige blushed at her mistake.

​“Who are you…?”

​Her question seemed to chill the young woman, who withdrew into marble silence. Paige did not dare insist, aware of her inferior status. She already did not know why Nemesis was keeping her here, and she did not wish to worsen her situation.

​After finally standing, Paige moved toward the curtainless window. She had to be almost at the top of the tower, because she had a clear view of an immense dark land, countless forests, and a luminous night vault dotted with crystalline stars…

​“The infernal lands?” she dared.

​“Yes,” the woman replied.

​Paige noticed that in the distance, the horizon was brushed by twilight, that light which greets the end of sunset.

​“My name is Egle,” the woman finally said.

​Paige searched her memory, but the name meant nothing to her. Was she a minor divinity?

​“I am a Hesperid.”

​Paige frowned, her gaze leaving the landscape for the woman. Then a faint flash crossed her mind. She was a nymph, but not just any.

​“A guardian… the gardens… the…”

​The words wouldn’t come. Then a terrible migraine seized her.

​“My head…”

​She collapsed to the floor.

​

​☾

​The next time Paige woke, she felt a presence on the bed. It was Nemesis. The drawn veils enclosed them in a protective bubble. The goddess of Vengeance lay on her right side, elbow against the mattress, her head resting in her right hand. Eyes slightly narrowed, she examined Paige in silence. Her red toga suited her perfectly. It flowed over her skin like blood.

​Paige, lying on her left side, shifted more comfortably into the pillow, and Nemesis followed the movement, settling onto the other cushion. Their faces came to rest opposite one another. It was the second time Paige truly took in that face, and she could not help finding it even more sublime. There was something tireless about that beauty.

“I can’t believe you are merely a woman,” Paige confessed softly, devouring her with her eyes.

“Many divinities are like me,” Nemesis replied.

​She seemed cold, but Paige understood it was only a barrier. Behind those dark eyes lived an entire world. She was certain of it from the fleeting glimmer in her gaze.

​“Thanatos, whom you honor as my brother, is in truth my sister,” Nemesis said.

​“But the stories… they describe you as a winged woman…”

​“I have wings.”

​Paige widened her eyes slightly.

​“I don’t always show them.”

​Nemesis spoke slowly, deliberately. She had that deep voice, that calm and measured presence, always flirting with the edge of a precipice, as though she could fall into madness at any moment. To Paige, such beings were the most frightening, because they were unpredictable.

​“As for the stories… certain humans prefer to imagine me as a man. So I let them.”

​“Why?”

​“It matters little to me.”

​Paige reflected on those words. The detachment of that answer surprised her.

​“Please,” she let out suddenly, her eyes filling with despair. “What did I do…? Tell me… I can’t stay here without knowing.”

​Perhaps it was the wrong thing to say, because Nemesis closed herself off.

​“Tell me about your life on Earth,” she said instead.

​Paige opened her blue eyes wide before exhaling, suddenly distant, lost against the goddess’s gaze that never stopped watching her.

​“I was a soldier… I lived in the Aeolian mountains, not far from the ocean. I was adopted by a Greek family who wanted a daughter. I think I should have died. I come from the East. My face…”

​“Yes… your face,” Nemesis echoed softly.

​Paige lifted her head and lost herself in her eyes.

​“Where did you fight?” Nemesis asked.

​“I don’t remember… everything is blurred. I don’t have many memories left. I think I loved only death… and discord.”

A long shiver ran down Paige’s spine. She dreamed of a blazing epic, one in which she would be glorified.

“I just wanted them to sing my name,” she finally whispered.

Nemesis’s gaze hardened.

“Lift your tunic.”

Paige blinked.

“I…”

“Above the waist.”

She obeyed, pulling the garment up to the chains circling her body. Unable to stop herself, Paige blushed faintly as she revealed her intimacy and hips, that vulnerable, fleshy part of her anatomy. But Nemesis barely looked there. She moved closer and placed her left hand in the hollow of Paige’s lower back, the same place she had touched before.

Paige felt something strange beneath her skin, like a small embedded object. Nemesis’s touch awakened something raw and primal inside her.

“I-”

She shut her eyes hard and exhaled sharply, overwhelmed by a sudden wave of emotion.

“Touch.”

Without thinking, Paige reached back with her right hand and clasped the goddess’s. Their fingers intertwined, and Paige’s fingertips brushed what felt like polished stone. A ruby was fused into her flesh, right between her kidneys.

“What is it…?”

“My stone, in you,” Nemesis sighed, as if in a trance.

Her stone… Paige remembered a blazing gleam. She was not surprised by the memory, that dark gaze glowing in the night. Vengeance sometimes dirtied her hands, let blood flow in crimson streaks, and Paige found it delicious. All that hatred. That carnage.

She imagined a battlefield covered in stripped corpses, entrails spilling onto the ground, pools of blood, torn limbs. She brushed against that synesthesia with the devotion of an initiate.

“Aaaah… Nemesis…”

How could that stone stimulate her senses so deeply? Nemesis had barely pressed it, and already Paige felt hypersensitive. Her insides burned. Her thighs stiffened, her body tensed. Nervously, Paige pressed her legs together, already feeling the warm, slick dampness of her desire coating her inner thighs. Her breath broke in short gasps.

“You’re so beautiful like this… you don’t know anything anymore…”

Paige responded instinctively, offering herself entirely to Nemesis.

“What are you… doing…?”

At the sight of her, the goddess drew closer, unable to resist pressing her own body against the soldier’s. She gently pushed Paige onto her back, lifted her own tunic, and sat astride Paige’s bare hips. Like Paige, she was naked beneath her clothes. Paige felt the searing contact as their two sexes met—a friction of flesh on flesh, labia against labia—that wrenched a bewitched moan from her.

Nemesis leaned forward, braced her left forearm on the bed, and slid her index and middle fingers into Paige’s eager, open mouth to stroke her tongue. Naturally, Paige closed her lips around them, coating them with her warm, pink muscle, stirring herself in soft vocalizations that vibrated against the goddess's fingers.

When Nemesis withdrew her fingers, she brushed them over Paige’s lips, wetting them, making them shine like candied fruit.

“But there you are… I recognize you,” Nemesis whispered, moving against her.

Paige couldn’t answer. She simply rolled her hips in rhythm, seeking to intensify the pressure of the goddess’s intimacy against her own. Her muscles tightened against the bed; her hands slipped beneath Nemesis’s toga, clutching the firm flesh of her buttocks to pull her harder against her burning lower belly.

“Azzi…”

And that name.

“Don’t call me that,” Nemesis murmured near her mouth, eyes half-closed as she continued her tormented back-and-forth.

Nemesis’s breath struck Paige’s face. She was splendid, dancing above her, rubbing her warm, wet intimacy against Paige’s own. What fascinated the soldier was the color of her eyes: red seemed to be seeping into the jet black of those celestial pupils.

“You…”

The goddess cut her off with a savage kiss, pressing so hard against her lips that it hurt, as if she were finally letting her rage and vengeance overflow. Her tongue surged into Paige’s mouth, exploring every corner with divine authority.

Paige moaned with pleasure, her hips bucking convulsively to find more friction. The rubbing of their sexes, heightened by Nemesis’s weight, created an unbearable heat that rose all the way to her skull. She wanted to disappear into this pleasure, to exist nowhere but here, crushed beneath this being whose raw sensuality was consuming her.

Paige was burning. Sweat coated their bodies, causing their skin to slide against each other with an erotic, wet sound. She became uncontrollable, breathing louder, rocking harder against the goddess. Her hands finally clutched Nemesis’s neck, not to push her away, but to anchor her there.

Their tongues wound around each other, starving; their lips were now red and swollen. Their hands roamed electrified skin. And when they pressed themselves together in one final thrust, Paige felt something both brutal and incredibly delicate tear through her.

She was mad for Nemesis.

“Paige…” the goddess murmured against her mouth.

Then, without Paige seeing it coming, pleasure seized her in a blinding flash. Her pelvic muscles contracted in a violent spasm, and Paige threw her head back, voicing her release in a moan muffled by Nemesis’s lips, which kept devouring her. A warm liquid spread between them, marking their union. Nemesis’s weight grew heavier on top of her, crushing her further, and Paige sank into sleep, exhausted by the ecstasy.

She barely had time to feel her body held, then covered with a sheet.

Night exploded in her mind in thousands of shards.

​☾

Time passed without Azzi appearing again.

Egle came more often. Each time, she said nothing, merely studied Paige with a curious, sorrowful expression, her eyes weighing heavy with secrets she dared not speak.

Nyx, meanwhile, had become nothing more than a vague memory. Sometimes the goddess pierced the black horizon, and Paige would see her from her window, a regal silhouette walking across the barren ground. Locked away in that mysterious chamber, the captive soldier often felt that Nyx was keeping watch, a silent sentinel making sure her prize was still there.

The sensations here were strange, distorted. It was as if her nose, her mouth, her ears, and her eyes were drugged, caught in a poisonous fog that blurred the edges of reality.

Paige tolerated the nectar better now, and she began feeding on ambrosia. She remembered how the nature of this substance was debated back on Earth. Humans argued endlessly about it; some described it as a thick red pulp, others as a shimmering, ethereal soup. Paige loved those disputes. More than anything, she loved the memory of hatred spilling out in reckless looks and senseless gestures. Everything irrational fed her soul like fresh, raw flesh.

The food here was different, lighter yet denser at once, sitting with a singular weight inside her body, as if it satisfied a hunger that wasn't purely physical. Paige began to believe that the night, this dwelling, and these sacred foods were transforming her into something mad, dark, and divine.

When she wasn’t eating, sleeping, or receiving visitors, Paige stared at the frozen twilight on the horizon. One evening, full-moon rays revealed distant ridges, granite blades slicing through a sky where the daylight had been dying for centuries. Time had simply crystallized. One might think Paige would grow weary of the monotony, of the absence of a sun. In truth, she made that eternal night her true nourishment. More than ambrosia, it threw her into a strange, quiet ecstasy, imprisoned in a world she could imagine ruling.

The eternal night.

☾

One night, Paige spoke to Egle. As usual, the nymph had settled into the red chair beside the bed.

"I’ve lost count of the nights here... Egle... tell me. I don’t know who you are, I don’t know why you’re here..."

Paige caught a glimpse of fragility in the nymph's eyes. Something shifted, and the girl finally spoke.

"You forgot. Once, you and Azzi..."

Azzi. That name lingered in her mind, unsettling her.

"We were lovers?" Paige completed hesitantly.

"Yes."

It made sense. Divinities often fell for mortals they wanted to keep as pets or prizes. Azzi must have brought her here for her own pleasure. Perhaps Paige even knew this tower already. Perhaps the goddess had claimed her here many times before.

"Why don’t I remember anything?"

"You were... punished. The memories of your past life are being held somewhere."

Paige swallowed hard. Her fractured memory wasn’t a mere accident; it was a sentence. She pressed further, asking about Nyx and Egle’s role as a Hesperide.

"I’m punished too, Paige..." the nymph cut in, her eyes filling with tears. "We... we did something, you and I... Something that devastated Earth and Humanity. Something that spilled so much blood..."

"Egle... what did we do?"

At that, the nymph closed herself off. She shook her head, her eyes shut tight against the memory, and fled the room as if the truth were a flame about to consume her.

☾

Perhaps a week passed like that. Azzi came sometimes to ensure Paige was eating, that she felt well. Beneath that polite concern hid a darker expectation, a hunger Paige could sense but not yet name. Paige didn’t know if Egle had confessed her revelation to Azzi, but she avoided the subject. She didn’t want to endanger the nymph. Or herself.

Paige began to believe Azzi had grown fond of her, perhaps for her love of war, her combat agility, or her dizzying youth. But if she had been punished, Paige knew she must have crossed a line. Hubris, the pride that defies the gods, had soaked into her like a toxic smoke.

Sometimes she dreamed.

She saw Azzi’s bloodied hands pressed against her stomach. She felt the goddess's ecstatic breath and the sharp, hot pressure of lips against her throat. In these visions, their bodies collided on the gray carpet atop the tower, a brutal, carnal struggle of bites and frantic caresses. She could still feel the relentless thrust of the goddess's hips against her own trembling frame, the slick heat of their shared desire in the shadow of the world. It was magnificent to be taken like that, raw and exposed.

But above all, there was that name that kept returning, trapped in laughter, war cries, pleasure moans, and whispered tenderness…

Azzi... Azzi... Azzi...

In those dreams, Paige recognized her own voice, broken and possessed, repeating it endlessly.

​☾

"We were lovers, weren’t we?"

That night, Azzi gazed at the eternal twilight, offering only her back to Paige, who sat on the bed. A canopy veil drifted timidly in the night breeze, casting a faint filter over the goddess.

"It’s possible," Azzi replied evenly.

But Paige knew it was true. Egle had confirmed it herself. Her soul trembling, Paige needed answers.

"I don’t remember anything."

Azzi let the silence linger before breaking it with a haunting softness.

"You were... mine. And I was yours, too."

Paige swallowed hard.

"I keep dreaming of your other name..."

Azzi didn’t comment on the familiarity.

"That name is a secret known only by you, Nyx, and Oceanus the Titan. I would hate to hear you speak formally to me if you call me that."

Paige felt her heart hammering against her ribs.

"What rank did I leave behind, Azzi... tell me. Please."

Azzi’s back tensed instantly.

"A rank?

"The one I was given at birth and must have abandoned... to be punished. Egle told me–"

"By the gods! Can she not hold her tongue?!" Nemesis snapped, spinning around.

Her dark pupils burned with a cold, sharp fury.

"And it is a good thing she spoke! I keep searching, trying to understand, but no one tells me anything except her! Do I not deserve the truth?!"

Azzi moved closer, passing behind the veil.

"You don’t remember your death, do you? Just a fight that ends in blood? Paige... the gods took you from me..."

"My... my nature?"

"I’ll show you."

Azzi walked to the dresser where her mirror rested, set with narcissus flowers.

"You must see it. Do you want to understand?"

Did she really?

"Kiss me first," Paige demanded with a controlled desperation, her eyes locking onto the goddess's.

Azzi approached and watched the soldier rise. Paige brushed aside the veil stretching between their silhouettes and stepped forward. The vision of Azzi, sharper and more real, stole her breath. Paige closed the remaining distance without blinking. When they were only centimeters apart, the goddess placed her index finger upon that mouth–a mouth she deemed perfect, crimson as warm, freshly spilled blood. Her large, dark eyes stared at her like never before.

Then she brought her face closer, her nose grazing Paige’s. She inhaled the scent of her lover, a fragrance she never ceased to seek during her sleeping hours. Azzi sighed against Paige’s lips; she flicked her tongue just to brush the soldier’s upper lip, resting the tip on her cupid’s bow. This mouth was delicious. She blew a light breath over it. The lip glistened, shining like a sea under the sun, before drying under the touch of air. Then Azzi pressed a chaste kiss, her hands framing that face so dear and soft. She wanted to imprint the shape of her own lips onto Paige’s, to remind her of the taste of her kisses.

She pulled back, observing the abandoned face of this being who belonged to her, and kissed her once more, tilting her head slightly. She would have liked to devour and bite this silk, delicate as a petal, to make blood flow, but her heart burned with an emotion too sweet for her usual fire.

Overwhelmed by a monstrous desire, Paige exhaled sharply against her mouth. She wanted more, much more than this gentleness. She pulled away from her former lover only to crash into her like a storm. The contact was brutal, violent, and animal. The soldier felt almost possessed, overwhelmed by an instinct she didn't recognize in herself. Her hands slid to the goddess’s nape, gripping the soft dark locks to pull her closer. And when she felt Azzi’s hands clasp her waist to embrace her, pull her in, and hold her, she knew.

She was where she belonged.

It was so good to feel her chest crushed against Azzi’s. Paige bit, kissed, and licked, and Azzi responded with perfect synchronicity. She worshipped this flesh, kissing frantically the mole just beneath Paige's mouth. The sounds of their suction and inflamed sighs merged, perfuming the air and plunging them into the depths of something terrible. Suddenly, Azzi slid her long fingers down to the small of Paige’s back, pressing between her kidneys to draw her closer, signaling a shattering and uncontrollable passion.

"You will be mine, you will be mine," Azzi whispered hurriedly, lips crushed against Paige’s, her eyelids almost entirely closed.

"Azzi... Azzi..."

When they pulled away, both women were breathing hard, lost in the limbo of their mutual attraction. Azzi was the first to compose herself. Her gaze still burned with longing, but her voice turned neutral.

"Look at yourself..."

She held up the mirror, and Paige plunged into a strangely familiar reflection.

It was her, yet different: her blonde hair was darkened by shadows that obscured her gaze. Her complexion was pale, a pearlescent lily-white, and her coral lips heightened the brilliance of her blue eyes... those eyes... Her eyelids were decorated with a long, thin black line that made her gaze hypnotic.

The image suddenly faded, transporting her to the heart of a majestic, theatrical scene.

She saw herself standing proud in the middle of a sea of people, dressed in her leather and brass breastplate. Half of her face was bathed in blood, flowing from her head into her light hair like dark ink.

"Fight!" she commanded with a demented laugh.

A laugh so mad that Paige felt fear of herself, even as she loved seeing herself this way.

"Scream! Scream for me!"

She shouted like a mother before her children. Then she understood: she was the one who had provoked this endless battle.

Men crashed into one another, disemboweling each other. Blades pierced hearts and bellies, uprooting organs and puncturing lungs; some soiled themselves and vomited, others succumbed to the sight of their own entrails spread on the ground like hideous black flesh.

Paige saw a man empaled; another pierced by a serrated blade that sank beneath his chin and burst through the crown of his skull. Fire spread, calcifying the survivors. The world burned, and the ashes were sublime. Heads littered the earth, merging into the soil beneath blood-soaked sandals. It was a monstrous slurry Paige longed to swallow.

She laughed and laughed, plunged into an immense ecstasy. It was magnificent. It was terrifying.

But the ecstasy vanished as quickly as it arrived. Paige saw herself pierced by a sword.

Stabbed in the stomach, from behind.

The vision froze her. Her other self fell silent, eyes widening as blood spilled from her mouth. Her trembling hands tried to grasp the blade protruding from her entrails. Then, it was violently pulled free, slicing her fingers. She collapsed onto the corpses, the bone of her elbow tearing through her skin from the impact of the fall.

She saw herself scream in pain. And then, she saw the face of her assassin.

When the mirror returned her own reflection, Paige came back to herself, gasping for air. The object slipped from her trembling hands, but Azzi caught it before it hit the floor.

"It was... it was Nyx..."

"Calm down," Azzi whispered, catching her as Paige began to fall apart.

"Why... how..."

She was cold. She was in pain.

Azzi laid her on the bed, watching her curl onto her side. She sat beside her, running slender fingers through her hair.

"Calm down..."

But Paige was drowning beneath the weight of the lies.

"She... she killed me..."

"I did it because it was necessary."

That voice, deep and smooth, filled the room behind them. Nyx. Paige recognized the timbre without turning. Azzi tensed, her dark gaze shifting to the goddess.

"Certain gods of Olympus punished you. Egle confessed it, didn’t she?"

Paige’s breathing slowly steadied.

"Who... who punished me?"

She rolled onto her back to face Nyx.

"Do you remember what the Hesperides guard, Paige?"

No. She didn't. And the pain of coming so close to the answer without grasping it was agonizing. Nyx stepped forward and sat beside her.

"Golden apples," she said. "A garden filled with golden apples."

Paige’s heart stopped. Golden apples.

"You’re beginning to understand now...?"

"I... I’m not sure."

"A long time ago," Nemesis whispered, "Nyx made me divine."

"Azzi," the goddess warned.

"Please."

Paige didn’t know what she was begging Nyx to reveal. But from the goddess’s silence, she knew she had accepted.

"Nyx came for me in the realm of Hades. She wasn’t alone; Oceanus the Titan was with her. It was a long time ago... so long that it feels like I dreamed it..."

Azzi’s gaze clouded as her voice became toneless.

"Both of them said they wanted to make me their child. I followed Nyx. The night fascinated me, the darkness fascinated me... I was not made for the light, and she knew it instantly. Throughout my human life... I was nothing but vengeance and hatred for injustice. That thirst I carried called to her."

Paige stared at Azzi, troubled. So, she had been human once... a very long time ago... And if…

"My name was Azzi Fudd, a lost soul from a far-off land, until I became Nemesis."

The goddess caught her breath.

"Then you arrived. You were... so fierce. You hated many people, you had few friends, few allies, but you were feared. You were simply fascinating, like a volcano ready to erupt at any moment. I think you hated me at first; you found me too righteous at heart.

Paige’s head was spinning, and she couldn't help but drink these words like nectar. So, she wasn't so human after all, and it didn't even surprise her. Her breathing quickened again as her mind raced.

"Nyx went to find you, in that land so far away... You were like an exotic flower brought from afar, a spice or a curiosity... You were so beautiful. All of Olympus fell for you. Ares wanted only you. But you loved only Nyx, you loved only the night... Ares let you come live here... among us, among her children."

Nyx stirred slightly. Paige turned her head toward her and, for the first time, caught a gaze so soft, so maternal, fixed upon her. The goddess reached out a hand and caressed her cheek with infinite delicacy, as if Paige were her own small child.

Azzi continued her story.

"One day, I revealed my name to you, my true name... I don’t really know why. Perhaps you felt it was something important, because you never looked at me the same way again."

The goddess paused. Then a slender, icy hand suddenly brushed Paige’s arm.

"Paige..." Nyx called.

The soldier turned toward the Goddess of Night. She noticed then that Nyx had removed the red veil that had covered her arm. The fabric lay on the bed, at a respectful distance.

"Your memories are held within this object."

Paige’s eyes widened at the fabric that had hypnotized her once before in Hades' palace.

"This veil..."

"It was yours, once. The gods who punished you captured your memories; they locked them in this veil for the day you would tear yourself away from your punishment and return."

The goddess made no movement, letting the veil glow in the shadows.

"Paige..." she whispered suddenly, her voice sounding frail.

Shocked by this fragility, Paige stared at her, hardly recognizing her. Nyx's expression was one of absolute sadness.

"I beg of you, believe me... I did you a great service that day... I put an end to your torment. We could no longer bear to see you like that, a slave to that condition," she breathed with a low, violent anger, like a rising tide.

Paige nodded distantly.

"I want you to cover your face with this night. You will find your memories. Tomorrow, we go to Olympus. The gods have learned of your presence in my lands."

Paige’s heart leapt. Olympus... She wasn’t sure she was ready to face the divinities who sat there.

"When you recover your memories, know that nothing changes for me. I will always be here."

☾

Nyx’s silhouette vanished into an impenetrable darkness. She had left the veil on the dresser, a luminescent garment. Only Azzi remained. The Goddess of Vengeance suddenly rose from the bed.

"Do you want me to leave you?"

"No," Paige replied frankly. "Stay near me. Talk to me. I don’t want to remember just yet."

Azzi complied. She settled back onto the bed, leaning on her elbow so that she slightly overlooked the young woman.

"Can I ask you something...?" Paige ventured.

"You can," Azzi whispered, brushing a strand of hair from the soldier’s forehead.

"Your stone... did it help me endure the nectar and ambrosia?"

"Not really. Your nature as a goddess helped you endure the food here. You just took time to readapt. Your ruby... let’s say it links you to me, just as I am linked to you."

"Do you wear a stone, too?"

"All gods who were once human have one."

Paige blinked. She thought of the bloody vision that had struck her earlier.

"At that moment... on the battlefield, I was... I was..."

"You were magnificent, Paige. You always will be."

Azzi wasn't horrified, then?

"You don’t know... not what I... I did..."

"Yes, yes, I know... oh gods Eri–... Paige..."

Paige noticed the strength with which Azzi held her, the surrender emanating from her as she pressed her forehead against Paige's. She felt the goddess hesitate before speaking her name, as if she were holding back.

"Say it..."

Because she had guessed it. Even if the memories were still prisoners of the veil, Paige understood. She had heard, in the depths of her own heart, that name echoing like a bell and a promise…

"Eris... Eris."

The soldier exhaled sharply, freed from an immense weight.

Eris. Goddess of Discord.

The mere act of saying the name aloud seemed to release a hungry monster within Azzi. She skillfully undid the gold threads around her chest and laid Paige on her side. The soldier, drowned in the name that sounded like a revelation, allowed her ankle to be kissed.

Azzi kissed the protruding bone, the curve of the calf, the hollow of the knee, licking the skin of her thigh with predatory devotion. She moved up to the hip, tracing the relief of her pelvis with her tongue, lingering on the ruby that sent an electric shock through Paige’s entire body. Her mouth salivated against her ribs, her arms, her neck, up to the silk of her cheek.

Each kiss spelled out the flesh of the other, this fascinating god in the form of a woman. Paige suffocated, lost between the images of the battle and the present heat of Azzi.

"Oh, Azzi..."

"I want you... with your memories."

Suddenly, Nemesis pulled away. Paige moaned in surprise, left naked among the veils, the black fabric of her tunic spread beside her. Azzi was dying to have her lover back in full possession of herself. She brought the red veil.

Paige covered her face with it.

The fabric was so thin it allowed the features of Eris to be seen. Beneath this scarlet web—the color of Nemesis—the divinity of Discord was finally revealed. Azzi could not hold back from pressing her lips to that mouth through the veil.

Paige closed her eyes. And she saw.

Her body trembled.

She moaned.

When she came back to herself, her gaze was now inhabited, deep as a whirlpool.

"Azzi."

The grave manner in which she spoke that name moved the goddess, who could not help but fall upon her lover’s neck to bite, like an animal. Her tunic was cast aside, and Paige felt the heat of Azzi’s body against her own nakedness before she was pinned down onto her stomach.

To fuck her.

Azzi felt she might die at the sight of that back–strong, arched for her–the hollow formed by those shoulder blades, and especially that red stone between the kidneys. It was her stone, Paige’s stone, her mark on this divine body, belonging to her and her alone. This body she had missed so much for what felt like an eternity.

"I am going to ravage you..." Azzi whispered, intoxicated by the image.

"As I once ravaged you, isn't that right, my love?" Paige purred against the bedding.

Though Azzi could not see her, she knew her lover was smiling with that magnificent insolence that belonged only to Discord.

The Goddess of Vengeance placed a hand on the spine and traced it with devotion before moving lower. She spread Paige’s legs and lowered her face between her thighs to taste her intimacy. Her expert tongue gathered Paige’s desire, making her arch violently. The goddess devoured her, hands firmly gripping the soldier’s hips to hold her against her burning breath.

The sensation was so delicious that Azzi lost control of her body for just a second too long.

Her wings unfurled abruptly. They closed like a cocoon of feathers over Paige, who lay surrendered beneath her. It was delectable to be secluded with her lover within those natural sails. Head buried in the bedding, Paige received the assaults of that divine mouth exploring every corner of her flesh. When she felt the feathers brush against her bare shoulders, she understood. A shiver devastated her skin, breaking her voice.

"Let... Let me turn over... I want to see you!" she commanded imperiously, refusing to remain passive.

Azzi loosened her grip, letting her roll onto her back, but Paige did not stop there. With a supple and authoritative movement, she flipped the goddess over to take her place above her. It was then that Paige recognized Nemesis in all her glory. Her red eyes glowed in the night she had just created with her wings. Paige also saw the obsidian on Azzi’s solar plexus. She remembered the exchange of their stones, a vow of eternal love.

"You are magnificent... Now it is my turn..."

Paige settled astride Azzi’s hips. She now dominated the Goddess of Vengeance, her hands fervently kneading Azzi’s breasts, pinching her sensitive nipples. She lowered her face to offer them wet kisses while sliding her fingers deep into Azzi’s intimacy. The goddess moaned, her wings twitching behind them like the sound of tearing silk. Paige quickened the pace, her long, agile fingers mimicking a back-and-forth motion that made her mistress lose her mind.

Azzi groaned with pleasure, attempting to regain control by clawing at Paige’s hips. The soldier straightened up, arching her back and offering her throat to Azzi’s bites as they united in an electrified friction of skin, seeking ecstasy in one another. Paige savored her position, crushing her pelvis against Azzi’s, her breasts brushing the goddess’s chest with every movement.

Azzi finally sat up to grab her by the nape of the neck, the two lovers now devouring each other in a carnal struggle where no one knew who commanded anymore. They felt themselves slipping away, crushed under the weight of a pleasure that never stopped growing. Their moans joined together, united in the warm air.

When they finally collapsed onto each other, their legs intertwined. Their mouths sought one another one last time for a languid kiss. A rustle of wings later, they drifted off to sleep against one another.

Their love had something celestial and ineffable about it.

​☾

"So, here you are among us."

Dressed in her black toga and a long, equally dark cloak, Paige nodded slowly, looking over the twelve gods who sat in the Great Hall of Olympus. Nyx and Azzi accompanied her. In that moment, she was no longer a lost young soldier.

She was Eris.

Her gaze stopped on Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena. The three were gripped by a cold, silent rage, yet they held themselves back. Zeus’s wife was certainly the most imposing. Seated to the right of the King of Olympus, she breathed heavily, like a hunting hound ready to spring.

Paige then noticed less hostile faces, more welcoming ones. It was a reserved feeling, as their status required a certain detachment, but she felt a very real joy enveloping her.

There was Ares, of course, who watched her with a look of near-worship and profound respect; Paige felt as if she were finding a dear friend again. Then Apollo, who could not help but offer her a small smile. And even if she showed nothing, Demeter radiated an obvious kindness. Near the goddess of Fertile Lands stood Egle, head bowed, trying her best to remain unnoticed.

Just to the left of Demeter, Athena fumed in silence. Aphrodite, meanwhile, allowed a disdainful pout to mar her perfect face.

"Some things seem to have hardly changed," Paige whispered.

"This constant provocation...!" Hera hissed.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes, and Paige almost felt like laughing. They were ridiculous.

"Eris," Zeus declared in a deep voice. Paige immediately turned her attention to him. "Do you know why you were punished?"

Paige said nothing. She cast a glance at Egle, who seemed to shrink even further into herself.

"This Hesperide testified. She let you enter the sacred garden, even helped you choose the apple you stole! Is this true?"

"Yes," Paige said. "But she did nothing else. She is innocent."

But Zeus continued:

"You then went to the feast held by Thetis and Peleus. You were not invited to that wedding. And you threw, in the middle of the banquet, that golden apple... on which you had engraved 'To the fairest'..."

The King of Olympus was interrupted by a snicker. It was Ares, who drew angry glares.

"What? You must admit it was a stroke of genius..." he justified, stifling another laugh.

"We can do without your comments, Ares," Athena snapped.

Paige watched her friend with affection. Ares had always been her ally, and she was sincerely moved to see that he still was.

"That gesture," Zeus resumed, ignoring them, "provoked the Trojan War. That simple apple tore us apart. Us, the gods, and them, the men... The Apple of Discord."

Paige felt Azzi tense beside her. Her black wings quivered slightly.

"This discord you sowed among us, this balance of the universe you broke... Eris, you very nearly destroyed us all. Many of us worried about your effects on our world."

Paige took a deep breath and spoke in a clear voice:

"Long before my birth, the gods were already tearing each other apart. They didn't need me to do it."

Hermes allowed a small smile to slip through.

"That apple shows well enough that stupidity is not only human..." Paige began.

"Watch what you...!" Hera erupted.

"Hera, let her speak," Poseidon cut in.

Paige locked her gaze with Zeus's...

"You speak of discord as if it disturbs the order of things. But that is false. You reject certain divinities–minor ones, like the children Nyx adopted. We are feared, but rarely prayed to, because you sow hatred in our wake! I stole that apple to reveal your vanity to the men who worship you. And I was not wrong: you needed no one but a piece of fruit to tear each other apart like fools. 'To the fairest'... I wrote that thinking of no one in particular. I only wanted to see the hearts most greedy for glory reveal themselves!"

"Eris..." Athena began, her expression irascible.

"You deeply disappointed me… you, the supposed friend of justice." Nemesis had spoken. Azzi’s voice, so low and icy, cast a massive chill over the room. She stepped forward, slightly unfurling her dark wings.

"I thought you were wiser, Athena... But you preferred to lower yourself to fight for a title of beauty scribbled on the skin of a fruit..."

Athena turned crimson. Paige had never seen her so uncomfortable.

"Is that all it is?" Azzi called out louder.

"You prefer to be beautiful? How very sad," she concluded in a breath that echoed through the hall.

Nyx finally spoke.

"Since the beginning, this world has needed shadow as much as light. Eris has always been part of that balance. That war was necessary. Discord marks the end of a cycle, of an age. Rather than destroying one another, let us simply accept that everyone here contributes to maintaining the harmony of our universe."

Demeter smiled and exchanged a knowing look with Nyx.

"We should vote," she said simply.

☾

The vote was not long. Zeus acted as judge so that the eleven could vote for a majority.

Eight to three.

Paige left, accompanied by Azzi and Nyx. Egle remained with Demeter to finally return to her garden.

Lying on the pearl-gray carpet on the roof of the tower, Paige felt her lover's hand brush her chest. The moonlight illuminated her face, which had regained its ivory glow. Both were entirely naked, limbs intertwined, bodies surrendered to one another. The stars watched them like an image of eternal desire.

"Why do you say you pity them?" Azzi whispered, her cheek against Paige’s.

"Because their life is miserable."

Nemesis snickered.

"She loves you, doesn't she?" Paige finally asked.

Azzi stopped laughing. She knew who Paige meant. Athena's looks, her lingering hatred... it was clearly the mask of a repressed desire for Vengeance.

"Yes. But I care nothing for it."

"I know."

Paige rose to hover over Azzi. Their eyes rejoiced to see that spark shared for centuries. Azzi loved being covered by the shadow of that naked body.

"You are mine," Paige whispered.

"As you are mine. Those mortal women who approached you on Earth..." Azzi growled jealously.

"Oh... strangely, they all disappeared..."

"I took care of those fools. Hubris..."

Paige laughed before leaning down, bringing her breath to Azzi's lips.

"Hubris..." she replied, her forehead against her lover's.

Finally, they felt they were in their rightful place, free in their actions.

"To the shadow and the ruins of the dawn that never comes..." Paige began.

"Outside, everything is devastated, ravaged..."

"...by Vengeance..."

"...and Discord."

And Eris’s veil cast itself over them, covering them like a secret finally returned to the night.

The world is a blur of neon lights and distant sounds as you glide through the city streets in Paige’s car. The night air feels thick with anticipation, humming with the quiet thrum of life, of people lost in their own worlds, unaware of the magnetic energy that crackles between you and the woman beside you.

Paige is different tonight. The glow from her recent championship win still lingers around her, lighting up her smile and igniting a spark in her eyes that is impossible to ignore. She doesn’t need to say a word for you to understand how much she’s glowing with pride, with confidence. The world has just witnessed her on the biggest stage, and now it’s just you two. You can feel it the weight of the night, the unspoken tension that hovers in the space between you.

She’s behind the wheel, but her energy doesn’t stay confined. You catch her glance every so often, her eyes flickering to yours with a heat that sends a shiver down your spine. You don’t need the words; the look in her eyes tells you everything. There’s a hunger there, a want that’s undeniable, and it’s growing with every passing second.

Her gaze shifts back to the road, but there’s something more than just focus in her expression. You notice how her lips curl slightly at the corners, as if she knows exactly what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling. You let your fingers rest on the leather seat, a small gesture, but one that causes your heart to pick up pace. Every move she makes is electric.

You want to reach out, to touch her, but you hold yourself back for a moment. The tension is thicker than you anticipated, swirling around you both, making every touch feel more loaded than the last. Paige doesn't say anything, she doesn’t have to. Her presence speaks volumes.

She slows down as she pulls into a quiet parking lot, the sound of the engine dying out, leaving the two of you alone with the night. The streetlights cast their soft glow, framing her in a halo of gold. She turns off the car, and everything goes still. For a moment, it's just the two of you, the silence between you loud, crackling with unspoken words.

Paige’s eyes meet yours again, locking with a gaze so intense it feels like you’re both drawn into another universe. Her lips part slightly, as if she’s about to say something, but the words never come. Instead, she leans forward, closer, her presence pulling you in like gravity. You feel the tension between you surge, and it’s all too much, too overwhelming.

Her fingers twitch on the wheel, a soft movement, but it speaks louder than anything she could say. You can feel her desire, her anticipation, and you realize that it mirrors your own. There’s no need for words now. You both know what’s coming. The unspoken connection between you is enough.

The air inside the car feels heavy, charged, as Paige moves, just slightly, reaching for you with an intent so clear it sends a jolt of heat straight through you. You can feel your heart in your throat, thumping with anticipation, the room shrinking around you. The space between you is shrinking, too.

Her eyes flicker from your lips to your eyes, and without a single word, you both move closer. The kiss that follows is slow, tentative at first, like you’re testing the waters, letting the moment wash over you before diving in completely. But the moment her lips meet yours, it’s as though the floodgates open. Her hands find their way to the back of your neck, pulling you into her with a desperation that takes you by surprise. It’s raw, urgent like you both can’t get close enough, can’t feel each other enough.

Every sensation feels amplified, electric. The heat from her body, the soft, hungry press of her lips, the faint sound of her breathing quickening. It all comes together in a moment that feels like it could break the world apart. Her kiss deepens, and so do you—pulled into her, caught in the surge of something far too powerful to name.

And just as quickly, she pulls away, not far enough to break the connection, but enough to leave both of you breathless, teetering on the edge of something more. The silence in the car is loud again, but this time, it's filled with the weight of everything you haven’t said. Your eyes meet once more, and you see something shift in her. Something that says, without a word, that this is only the beginning.

The moment stretches on, a suspended pause that hangs between you two, neither of you moving, yet everything is changing. Paige’s fingers trail lightly across your cheek, and it feels like every touch is a promise, silent, but clear. You feel the heat rising again, this time not in your chest but lower, between your legs, a slow burn that spreads through you like wildfire.

Her gaze never leaves yours as she shifts beneath you, her lips now brushing lightly against your skin in a series of soft, teasing kisses that drive you mad. She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t have to. Every glance, every motion between you is electric, loaded with more than just passion it’s desire, it’s need, it’s hers.

Paige’s hands wander to your waist, her touch gentle but firm, guiding you closer, pulling you into her space. You can feel her heartbeat, fast and unsteady, matching your own. It’s like an invisible thread between you, tightening with every inch that separates you.

You move without thinking, instinct pulling you as you straddle her, your body aligning with hers in a way that feels too perfect, too right. Every second that passes, the air between you thickens, saturating with desire, each breath a quiet plea for more. She doesn’t need to move, doesn’t need to do anything more, but you can feel the way she holds herself back, as if waiting for you to take the next step.

But it’s you who leans in first, your lips brushing against hers, soft at first, gentle, almost reverent. There’s an intensity in the way she responds, as though she’s been holding herself back, waiting for this moment. When her lips meet yours, it’s with an urgency that makes everything else fade away. Her hands grip your hips, pulling you flush against her, and you feel her heat in every inch of your skin.

The kiss deepens as you rock against her, a slow, sensual grind that leaves you both breathless. Your body is already moving with hers, instinct guiding you in perfect synchrony. There’s no need for words—every shift, every slight press of her body against yours speaks louder than anything you could say.

She breaks the kiss, but not entirely. Her lips hover just inches from yours, the heat of her breath mingling with yours. You’re both gasping for air, the space between you still too small, too charged. Her hands slide up your back, gently urging you to press even closer. You follow her lead, your body responding without hesitation.

The friction is agonizing in its slowness, each movement drawing you both deeper into the moment. Every inch of her body is alive beneath your touch, every shiver that runs through her body sending an electric pulse straight to yours. She doesn’t need to tell you what she wants. You can feel it in the way her body moves with yours, in the way her breath catches as she fights to hold onto control.

Her lips find your neck again, trailing hot, breathless kisses down to the sensitive spot just below your ear. The touch makes you gasp, your head tilting back instinctively, offering her more. The way she kisses you, slow and deliberate, makes you ache for her in ways you didn’t think possible. It’s a dance—each movement, each touch building toward something that feels too inevitable to stop.

Paige pulls back just slightly, her eyes flicking to yours. They’re dark now, full of desire, pupils blown wide, and you see the fire in them, feel the need radiating from her in waves. She doesn’t say anything, but the hunger in her gaze speaks volumes.

There’s no need for words between you two now. The connection between you is enough. You move again, this time faster, more urgently, every part of you alive with the feeling of her. The world outside ceases to exist. There’s only Paige. Only the way she feels against you. Only the way you’re tangled in each other, craving more.

And still, there’s that look the way her eyes lock with yours, holding you, keeping you tethered to her, making every second stretch longer.

The night continues to slip past you like a stolen secret. The car, once a silent observer, now vibrates with every breath, every movement. The air around you both is thick with unspoken promises and the hunger that has been building since you first stepped into this moment. Each shift, each subtle touch, is more than just physical—it's an exchange, a dance of desire that goes beyond anything either of you expected.

Paige’s hands trace the lines of your body as if memorizing each curve, each inch of your skin. Her fingers are a soft storm, never rushing, always lingering just long enough to drive you mad. You tilt your head back, eyes closing as the sensation overwhelms you, your skin alive with each new touch, each new kiss.

She leans into you, her lips brushing against the hollow of your throat, soft at first, then firmer, a trail of heat that sends a shiver up your spine. Her breath is a warm promise against your skin, and you feel her pulse quicken as she drags her lips lower, brushing against your collarbone, to the sensitive spot just beneath your ear that makes your breath catch.

“I’ve wanted this for so long,” she whispers, the words barely audible over the sound of your heart beating in your chest. Her lips move against your skin as she speaks, sending a wave of heat through your veins. The sound of her voice, so raw and unguarded, only stokes the fire between you.

Your hands, previously hesitant, now roam freely across her body, finding purchase on her waist, pulling her closer, as though you can’t get close enough. The chemistry between you is undeniable, magnetic like you’re tethered by some invisible force that refuses to let go. You want more. You need more.

Your fingers trace the outline of her jaw, and her eyes flick up to meet yours, pupils wide with desire. There's a vulnerability there now, something softer than the confident, cocky smile she usually wears. But it only adds to the intensity—the understanding that this moment, this night, is for both of you. There’s no pretense here. Just raw, unfiltered need.

“You’re everything I wanted and more,” you breathe, the words slipping out before you can stop them. They feel like the truth, heavy and pure, and you know she hears it. You can see it in the way her lips curve up slightly, the way her eyes darken even more.

She responds with a soft laugh, a mix of satisfaction and something darker, almost teasing. "I'm glad I can live up to the hype," she murmurs, but her voice betrays her, the faint tremor in it telling you that, for all her control, she’s not immune to the same wild pull you feel.

Her hands slide down to the hem of your shirt, pulling it up slowly, deliberately, and you lift your arms without thinking. The fabric slides over your head, the air cool against your now-bare skin. Paige’s eyes are on you—on every inch of you—as she takes in the sight, her gaze almost possessive, the way she moves closer to you as if she’s been starving for this very moment.

You lean in, capturing her lips once again, but this kiss is different urgent, hungry, filled with a rawness that feels almost dangerous. There’s no hesitation this time, no testing the waters. You’re in this together, consumed by the fire between you. Your hands slide into her hair, tugging her closer, deepening the kiss, desperate for more of her, for more of this feeling that’s become all-consuming.

Paige’s hands are everywhere touching, pulling, guiding, exploring and each touch sends your pulse racing. She’s not gentle, not soft. There’s an edge to her, a fierceness that drives you wild, and you match her intensity, your bodies moving together in a perfect, fluid rhythm.

Her lips trail down your neck again, and you gasp as her teeth graze your skin, sending waves of heat and pleasure shooting straight to your core. You can feel the press of her body against yours, every inch of her warm, alive, and it feels like you’re dissolving into her, losing yourself in the sensation.

"You want me," she murmurs, voice low and husky, lips still pressed against your skin. It’s a statement, not a question, but the way she says it makes your body ache with need. You nod, unable to find your voice, but the answer is clear in every movement, in every breathless gasp that slips from your lips.

"I need you," you reply, the words barely more than a whisper, but they hang heavy in the air between you.

Paige’s hands move lower, tracing the curve of your waist, your hips, before sliding beneath the waistband of your jeans. The sensation of her touch on your skin, so intimate, so immediate, makes your breath catch in your throat. She pauses for a moment, her fingers still against your skin, and her eyes find yours again. There’s a wicked gleam in them now, something teasing, something dark and filled with desire.

“Tell me what you want,” she murmurs, her voice both seductive and commanding. It’s a question, but it’s also a challenge. And you know instinctively that there’s no going back now.

“I want all of you,” you breathe, your voice a mixture of urgency and desire. The words feel like they’ve been building inside of you, a dam that’s finally breaking, and you’re not sure you can stop them. But in that moment, you realize there’s nothing you want more than this. Than her.

Paige doesn’t waste any time. Her lips crash against yours once more, hungry and desperate, her hands moving with purpose, pulling at your jeans, guiding you, making you feel the urgency that thrums through her veins. The car feels like it’s closing in on you, the world outside fading into nothingness as you’re drawn deeper into the heat of the moment. Every touch, every kiss, every movement is building toward something inevitable.