Ch.3L: Leto's Private Session / Nyse Lagoon

[Legendary Sidekick]

"Sorry about that," says the grace that was enjoying herself moments ago. "I'm Euphrosyne."

The one who escorted you in says, "I'm Thalia."

The one who escorted Kell enters and says, "I'm Aglaia."

Thalia says, "I realize you are not used to us nymphs. Please allow use to step out and put some clothing on."

The Three Graces return to Leto's room dressed in white tutus and tights. They begin to dance. Other nymphs follow them in. They are musicians performing a piece called Swan Lake.

You enjoy the show. There are no sexual overtones to this dance. The ballet is simply beautiful and the musicians are dressed elegantly.

The dance goes on for the better part of an hour, and you find the performance relaxing. A swan feather falls in front of her. It must have come off of Thalia's costume.

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto smiles as the Graces introduce themselves. "Call me Leto."

She hates having to phrase it like that... and yet "I'm Leto" doesn't sound right either. What is her real name? Why is it so important that she not know it?

Her anxiety fades as the Graces return, followed by nymphs. She watches the dance in quiet contentment, toying idly with the feather she finds on the floor. It makes her think of her swan cloak -- the closest she'll ever get to having wings like a valkyrie, unless she gives up the life of a Huntress for good. Brynhild used to say Leto would make a good valkyrie... and then gave her a bow to hunt with. Go figure.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Another feather falls at your feet. And another. And another!

Soon it is raining feathers! You can't even see the dancers, there are so many!

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto blinks as the room suddenly fills with feathers, much like in the first part of her dream. She quickly stands up from her seat on the floor, not wanting to be buried in them. What is going on?

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Suddenly the sun rises before you! You are momentarily blinded by its brilliance!

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto yelps and throws up her arms to shield her face from the sunlight. Then another instinct kicks in, thanks to Artemis' warning, and she drops to a crouch to protect her torso from the seemingly-inevitable arrows of Apollo.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Flaming arrows strike the ground all around you! As you step back, one beam of the dojo's broken ceiling is between you and the sun. The dojo itself is burning--and what about all those nymphs?

You can see one of them. Aglaia. She is lying on her face. Her tutu erupts into flames! Her pretty white outfit is blackening and crumpling onto the grace's perfect skin. She doesn't move or scream as the flames envelop her strawberry blonde curls.

The entire floor is burning and a wall has collapsed revealing a clear path to the stairs.

The stairs are in the opposite direction of Aglaia's body.

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto sees only one nymph in all the burning chaos, and dives toward her rather than the stairs. Better to get herself and Aglaia out of the fire if she can, rather than just herself. Hopefully all the others have fled to safety.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

You rush over to Aglaia and scoop her up in your arms. The clothing burns off of her body, but her skin, her hair—she—is unharmed! You don't stop as the roof caves in behind you.

Those elegant nymphs are way ahead of you, scrambling to safety. The naked grace in your arms gives you a nice feeling, but you're saving her life. This is not the "nymph effect." Your head is clear of that at the moment.

Aglaia leaps from your arms and runs alongside you. "You saved me… but Thalia and Euphrosyne! Where are they?"

Flaming arrows rain down, and the villa leads you to two possible destinations: you can climb up to the flower garden or plunge into the lagoon.

((ACROBATICS: climb to flower garden))
((AQUATICS: dive into the lagoon))

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto remembers Aphrodite alluding to water being dangerous, and looks toward the gardens. "I'm going to look up there. As long as you're okay."

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

You climb up a vine—almost tearing it free from the wall—but your struggle is not in vain. You make it to the top, though you end up taking an arrow to the back.

((-6 fire damage))

More arrows rain down around you, engulfing flower beds. You see Thalia entangled in vines. "Get me out!" she cries.

A giant venus fly trap rises behind her and opens its jaws! You reach for your weapon, but apparently you put your weapons on the floor when you watched the ballet. Funny. You don't remember putting them down, and it's never been a bother to sheathe them, but for some reason, you're unarmed!

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto's breath leaves her in a noise of pain as an arrow thuds into her back, but she keeps climbing and reaches the fiery garden. Thalia is entangled in vines, and -- what is that thing behind her?! Leto reaches for a weapon, and--

Dritt, dritt, dritt, dritt, dritt! How could she have forgotten her weapons? She doesn't even have her carving knife! Leto clenches her fists, then charges toward the trapped nymph. Looks like she'll have to handle this bare-handed!

Reaching Thalia, she tries to pull the nymph free of the vines before the giant plant thing can get her in its jaws.

((Holy dritt!))

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

You try to grab Thalia, but the claws clamp shut on her--

--so you grab each jaw of the plant instead and tear its head in two! You and Thalia are covered in green goop, but aside from a few scrapes, you're both fine!

"I... uh... didn't think you had that in you," she says.

The daylight reminds you that you can't stay here.

Thalia asks you, "Where do you want to look for Euphrosyne? Do you want to look deep in the sea or high in the sky?"

Surely there's a more plausible third option.

"No there isn't!" Thalia insists very loudly. "You fly to the top of the sky or swim under the world! Those are your options, so pick one already!" She flicks some of the goop off her arm. "I hate being dirty."

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto stares at Thalia, trying to think fast. Water is dangerous, thunderstorms are equally dangerous -- no, even MORE dangerous if she's in her breel-hide armor! But if they go above the clouds, or the sky stays clear, then maybe...? Though, being underwater would protect her from Apollo's fire, too...

She looks back at the flames and shudders. "I'm going to be in deep dritt either way, I think. Let's try the water." It doesn't occur to her to question how she's going to survive underwater for that long.

"But Kell and Vin -- what about them?"

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Thalia just smiles at your question. "You are saving who you can. I guess I can tell you that Vin and Kell are fine."

You leap down into the water. It is eight floors below, and as you fall your armor is falling apart. Piece by piece you are stripped of armor and everything underneath except for a pair of seashells tied on as a bra.

Still falling, you look down at your nakedness below the waist and are surprised to see your lower half is a four-foot-long fishtail!

When you plunge into the sea, Apollo's arrows follow you in. Only one hits. ((1 damage.)) The arrows around you are made of gold but their flames have been extinguished by the water.

It is very dark as you swim deeper and deeper. Soon you are underneath the world. When you look down, you see stars. Bright jellyfish and other strange creatures swim between the world and the stars.

Euphrosyne is down here as well. She is enjoying a swim. She doesn't seem the least bit bothered by the flaming arrows raining down upon Aphrodite's villa.

She says, "Shall we talk about the real reason why you're here?"

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto gapes at her fish-tail, and instinctively takes a deep breath before plunging into the water. Once fully submerged, she gasps as another arrow hits, and remembers she doesn't have to worry about drowning. Taking water in and out of her lungs feels oddly natural. But the saltwater burns painfully in her wounds, keeping her from fully appreciating the strange beauty of the deeps.

She sighs in relief as they find Euphrosyne, at least until the nymph speaks. Then she winces, feeling a prickling in her eyes that would yield tears above the surface, and her breath hitches as she sobs. "I'm so sorry... I should have said something. Or I-I should never have come at all. People could be getting hurt because of me! I'm supposed to protect innocent people, not put them in more danger!"

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Euphrosyne's expression is one of empathy. "Awwww." She hugs you. ((+7 health))

Thalia swims over to you as well. "I think your fears are making a mess of this meditation."

Aglaia emerges from the starry sky below. "Can you tell me what you're afraid of? Besides fiery arrows falling from the sky, I mean."

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto clings to Euphrosyne, then pulls away and stares at Thalia. "Meditation? You mean none of this is real?" She shakes her head, disbelieving, then swallows hard.

"I'm scared of... of never knowing who I am. Of never knowing why the gods themselves -- some of them -- want to kill me. There's something inside my head that they want, and someone took the rest of my memories to protect it. I want to know why. Why they couldn't just shut away the one thing they needed to hide, and leave the rest intact. I'm twenty-two years old, and I only have three years' worth of my own lifetime in my head! Not my childhood, my family, my home... Not even my name! Why couldn't they leave me my name?"

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Aglaia says, "Oh! Oh dear... losing so many memories is rather rough. We were just going to teach you magic. You saw me getting engulfed in flames and only my clothes burned but I was fine, right? Well, I mastered fire magic, but your dream distorted that."

Thalia says, "Well I was supposed to show you water but you dreamed the elements in the wrong order. Stupid plant and its green crap. Even swimming in space doesn't take this shit off. How am I supposed to dance Swan Lake in a green tutu?"

Eiphrosyne says, "Flowers are my magic, but you don't care about that. You've got memories to unlock. That could take... well... way longer than this session. But never mind that. You have one more element to explore: air." She points to the stars below. "It's faster to get to the air if you swim down."

 

[Ireth]

Leto

Leto blushes, embarrassed and angry with herself. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to muck things up. I think maybe we should just finish this quickly."

She follows Euphrosyne's pointing finger, swimming toward the stars. What a strange feeling.