The Gift of the Lethe

Woven Battles

Athena turns to Pallas, her eyes stern. "Please don't tell me you were actually planning to train so hard that you would pass out?" Pallas gives her a sheepish smile, prompting Athena to groan. "Do you not learn? You did this when we were twelve and ended up in the infirmary, the same thing happened three more times that year and twice more after that. You said you wouldn't do it again!"

Pallas winces. "It helps me think, Thene."

"And you think that gives you a free pass to hurt yourself by pushing your body too hard? Artemis is right, someone needs to watch you."

"Thene, no. It's not necessary. I know my limits."

Athena stares her down and Pallas has to fight the urge to shrink back. "Prior experience would say otherwise. I watch, or your father watches."

Pallas grimaces. "You aren't letting this go, are you?"

Athena shakes her head. "Not at all."

~~~

Pallas spins, angling her staff to jab right up into the side of the dummy. The force of her blow pushes it back slightly but the dummy bounces right back towards her, just in time for her to spin her spear around and hit its other side. Her hand shakes on the second strike, sending the tip of her staff wobbling.

Pallas just tightens her grip and lunges again, stabbing the dummy right in the stomach. It makes a satisfying whumping sound, but the dummy doesn't move. Pallas takes a step back and sighs, pinning the staff under her armpit so she can flex her sore fingers. When the tension eases, she moves to take up her stance again.

Her strike misses the dummy, but she doesn't know if it's due to the dim light from the lamp across the room or the fact that her strength is flagging. She grits her teeth and strikes again, hitting the cloth body with first one end of the staff and then the other. Her staff spins around to hit it again, but a hand stops the weapon before it can make contact. Pallas grimaces.

"Thene, let go. I'm fine."

"Are you? From where I'm standing, it looks like you could dislocate your own knee with the way you're standing on it. You get sloppy when you're tired."

"I do not!"

Even so, Pallas glances down at her positioning. Her foot is twisted slightly, enough so that she truly could have injured herself by stepping forward in the wrong way. She sighs and lowers the staff. Athena takes it from her and moves to lean it against the wall before she steps back over and pulls on Pallas' arm.

"You're done now."

"Thene, no! Let me at least do some hand to hand."

"You're about to pass out, Pallas. I saw how much you were shaking. No more fighting until tomorrow."

"I need something to do, Thene. I can't sleep. I don't want to dream."

"Then weave with me."

"What?"

Athena's eyes widen. "I forgot, I didn't weave in our childhood. I've been doing it so long. Here, I'll show you."

Pallas lets Athena lead her into another, more well-lit room. A strange wooden frame sits in the center of the room, baskets of thread placed to one side of it. With a wave of Athena's hand, a second, smaller frame appears beside the first, a stool before it. Athena motions toward the wooden frame.

"This is a loom, I use it for weaving cloth, although the larger one of these is a tapestry loom, and the smaller is for more useful fabrics."

Pallas hesitantly takes a seat on the stool and listens as Athena explains the weaving process to her and demonstrates with a few passes of the strange weaving instrument called a shuttle. When she motions for Pallas to try, Pallas can't help but be confused as she starts the work, pretty successfully if she's being honest.

"How will this help?"

Athena grimaces as she takes a seat in front of the other loom and begins to work. "After you . . . died, I was drowning in my guilt." Pallas shoots her a look and Athena sighs. "Yes, I know, I wasn't supposed to blame myself. You told me not to, but I couldn't help it. So I chose to weave, to channel my emotions into something constructive. It ended up being soothing, even more so when I began to weave tapestries and create images." When she flushes slightly, Pallas gives her the side-eye.

"What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing important, really. It's just that some of the tapestries I wove had interesting images."

Pallas doesn't force her lover to elaborate. "So your weaving is a coping mechanism?"

"It has, and it grew to become part of my domain. I was always possessive of it, even before it was that."

"Why?"

A soft frown graces Athena's face and she is silent for a few, long seconds before she admits her thoughts. "It was my lingering connection to you. It felt like something you would enjoy, and I felt like you were there with me when I wove because of that."

Pallas goes to say something, but decides better of it and turns to the loom. The two of them work in silence, with Pallas periodically glancing over at Athena's work. She moves quickly, the tapestry is already halfway complete by the time Pallas gets perhaps a hand's length of cloth on her own loom. When Pallas yawns, squinting as her loom gets blurry, Athena laughs.

"You're about to fall asleep, Pallas."

"I don't want to sleep. Sleep means dreams and dreams mean the nightmare."

"No, they won't, Pallas. I got something for you from Morpheus."

Pallas blinks. "When did you do that?"

"Do you know how long we've been weaving for?"

"Umm, no?"

"It's been several hours. I popped out for a few minutes and cashed in a favour. Here." Athena extends a hand to her, a poppy flower pendant swinging from her fingers on a silver chain. "It should keep the nightmares from you. We'll need something to help you heal properly, but this should work for now."

Pallas gapes at it. "Thene, I-"

"You don't need to say anything, just please sleep. Before you pass out and hurt yourself."

Pallas snorts but latches the chain of the pendant around her neck and walks with Athena back to the bedroom, yawning.

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What do you think of the origins of Athena's weaving? What about the details of how Pallas trains? I liked fleshing out those details. What do you think will happen next? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~ Goddess of Fate, signing out