Artemis of Bana-Mighdall

December 1987

Artemis was sitting next to Alexa, on the stairs of the Temple of Hera. The night felt warm, with the sound of the crickets' songs in the nearby forest. However, more beautiful than the songs of the night was the sound of her mother-in-law yelling in frustration a few feet away.

"Lena, no, drop that! Give me that stone!"

"No!"

"Lena, I order you to give me that stone!"

"No no no!"

Her daughter started to run away from her grandmother, and Hippolyta had no choice but to pursue the infant. Since Lena had learned to walk, she hadn't stayed still for a minute. Which caused the Amazon Queen to be in an irritable mood. She may look like Diana, but Lena has my charming sense of humor, and Hippolyta knows it. She smirked. I love my daughter.

"You're bad," the teenager to her side said.

"Mmm? I have no idea what you mean, Alexa."

"Do you teach my niece to purposely misbehave with the Queen?" Alexa crossed her arms.

"Do you actually think I can do something like that? Who do you take me for?" Artemis smiled.

When Hippolyta finally caught her granddaughter and took the stone from her, Lena began to squirm with annoyance. Her moans of anger caught the attention of the Queen's personal guards, who had been watching the scene in silence. Those four need to have sex, especially Alkyone.

Artemis watched Alkyone whisper something to Charis, and she frowned.

"Something you want to share with us?" Artemis asked the royal guards.

Hippolyta stopped trying to calm Lena, and looked at the other Amazons. Lena managed to escape from her grandmother's arms and went to sit on Alexa's lap.

"Your daughter is already walking quite well, Artemis," Alkyone said with a shrug. "When Diana learned to walk, we immediately put a knife in her hand. Don't you think it's time for her to start training?"

"There is nothing I would like more than to teach Lena how to use a knife," Artemis said, patting her daughter sitting on her sister's lap. "What do you think, Lena? Do you want to attack your grandmother with a knife instead of a stone?"

"Careful, Artemis," snorted Hippolyta. "That you married my daughter doesn't mean I can't lock you up in a dungeon."

Lena's face lit up as she tried to pronounce 'dungeon'. Alexa ruffled her ink black hair and hugged her.

"Your concern for my daughter is moving, Alkyone," Artemis said, trying to sound the least sarcastic. "But Lena will start training after her birthday. Right, Lena?"

"No!" Lena frowned. "No wan!"

Tartarus, she spends a lot of time with Alexa.

"I don't see her very enthusiastic about honoring her culture," said Myrto, the royal archer, joining Alkyone and Charis.

"It's because she's too young. I didn't like fighting either when I was her age." Alexa kissed Lena's hair. "I was always better with the pen than with the sword."

Myrto frowned. "Honestly, Alexa, how did you survive in Bana-Mighdall?"

Before Artemis could defend her younger sister, a dry noise interrupted her. Diana landed in the courtyard, next to her mother. Lena smiled and exclaimed 'mommy!', but Artemis' wife's smile was opaque, sad. Artemis felt a pang of worry.

Hippolyta enveloped Diana in a short embrace. "Welcome back, my sun and stars." The Queen caressed her face, and as she did so she realized the sadness in her eyes. "Diana? Has something happened?"

The brunette shrugged and sighed, doing her best to smile. She separated from her mother and went to Artemis. Diana kissed her on the lips and sat next to her, caressing her hand. Lena immediately left her aunt's lap to go and hug her mother. Diana wrapped her in her arms and kissed her small shoulder.

"Diana?" asked Artemis.

Diana looked up and looked at her wife, then her mother and Alexa, and even shared a brief glance with the royal guards.

"I've lost a friend."

Artemis let out the air she didn't know she was holding.

"Died fighting?" Artemis asked.

"She's not physically dead." Diana's face darkened. "But from now on, she's dead to me."

The hopeful mother

7:13 PM

Artemis finished telling the story and let out a long sigh. She didn't look away from Lena at any point in the conversation. While she had spoken, her daughter (I'll never lose you again) had tried to remain calm, but her hand shook a little when she heard what Lillian had done to so many people thirty years ago. The journalist (Oh Isis, a journalist) took her hand lovingly, stroking her thumb.

She wished she could close the distance and hug Lena, but didn't want to push her to do anything she didn't want. She's as beautiful as Diana. For a second, she was selfish enough to be jealous of the journalist for being able to comfort her.

Easy, Artemis. She's in front of you, breathing. That has to be enough for now.

The journalist's cell phone rang. Artemis watched the girl take it, open her eyes slightly, frown, then reject the call.

"Who was it?" Lena asked.

"It's not important now." The journalist, Kara, stroked Lena's arm. "It can wait. Please, continue," she told Artemis.

Lena looked at her again, and Artemis felt a weight in her stomach, knowing she would have to remember that day. She took a deep breath to keep calm, stroked her thumb, and sat upright.

"Do you know what a Shim'Tar is, Lena?"

"I know," Kara replied, looking at both women. "In Bana-Mighdall, Shim'Tar is what they call their greatest warrior. She who has never been defeated. The Shim'Tar has different rights and obligations than... others Amazons." Kara blushed as she felt the redhead's stunned gaze. "Umm, my sister used to tell me stories about Amazons."

Artemis smiled a little. "I used to be Shim'Tar, thirty years ago." Her smile subsided. "Every year, in Bana-Mighdall the festival of the hunt is celebrated, in honor to Neit. It's the only party we have in the year, and as Shim'Tar, I had to participate in the celebration. Coincidentally, the date coincided with your second birthday." Artemis watched Lena entwine her fingers with her girlfriend's. "So we took you." She clenched her fists a little.

"The three of us, and your grandmother's four personal guards, set out for Bana-Mighdall. Hippolyta thought it would be seen as a sign of respect that we carried an entourage emdash or perhaps she just wanted to annoy me, I don't know. When we arrived, since it seemed that you weren't going to get tired of crying because of the heat, we went into the river to play and you stopped crying. Then you began to explore around you, always accompanied by a guard, or one of the women of my people. The Bana are women of war, tough and ferocious, with contempt for sentimentality. But even Queen Anahid laughed when you put an arrowhead in the seat of Charis, one of the guards.

It happened after the third day of the celebration." Artemis sighed a little louder.

The Happy Shim'Tar

1988

Artemis watched Diana sleep, hugging her pillow. A black curl tickled her nose. She smiled and removed the strand of hair from her face. She seems to have had a good time last night.

Feeling the desire to do something nice for her wife, the redhead got out of bed and put on her clothes. At that hour of the day it was not hot yet, because the morning sun was hidden in the mountains. However, it will be quite hot later. I'll have to bathe Lena before lunch. Artemis left the bedroom she occupied with Diana and walked to the kitchen. The temple of Isis was the place most similar to a palace that the city had. Unlike the beauty of Themyscira, Bana-Mighdall was a rustic, simple city. When Artemis was a child, they lacked almost everything except pride and ferocity.

She picked up a bowl of figs from the kitchen, and took them to her bedroom, yawning. She opened the door softly, smiling at the figure of Diana illuminated by the morning light. Artemis climbed back onto the bed, hugging Diana and kissing her behind her ear.

"Mmm, what time is it?" whispered the princess.

"The sun hasn't yet come out from behind the mountains. It must be almost 8:00," Artemis whispered from her shoulder.

"What time did you put Lena to bed last night?"

"Almost 10:00," she murmured with her eyes closed. "She had a tantrum because she wanted to play in the river. Honestly, I don't know where I get so much patience."

"The power of motherly love?"

"Mmm, maybe. But you could reward me better for being so wonderful, princess. The gratification of maternal love isn't enough. "

Diana smiled and rolled over to her wife, letting the sheet slide a little. She brought her mouth close to that other appetizing mouth, that mouth that was hers and only hers to kiss as many times as she wanted. The brunette didn't close the distance, leaving her lips inches from her wife's.

"If you go and wake up Lena..." her index finger caressed her chin. "I'll give you whatever you ask for."

Artemis immediately left the bed, leaving their bedroom and moving down the hallway to the left. Lena's bedroom was the brightest, so she would not be frightened of the darkness. She opened the door and slowly walked over to the sleeping figure on the bed.

"Lena, wake up, it's time to get out of bed." Artemis shook her daughter a little. "Come on now, you have to prepare to go to... breakfast."

Lena wasn't there.

What she had thought was her daughter, was just a pillow and a pair of tangled sheets. Artemis looked dismayed at these objects, not understanding. She bent over and looked under the bed. Nothing. She looked in the small closet. Nothing.

"Lena?"

No one answered.

"Okay, you've already crossed the line. When I find you, I'll force you to eat carrots for the rest of the week, miss rebel."

Artemis stepped out of the bedroom, eyes wide as she made her way down the hall. She's already giving me headaches and she's only two years old. What is she going to do when she's fifteen? Artemis returned to her bedroom and shook Diana lightly.

"Di, wake up. Lena went back to hiding."

"Did you check under the bed?" Diana asked from her pillow.

"Of course I checked under the bed! Come on, the faster we find her, the faster I can eat figs from your body."

Diana let out a short sigh and left the bed.

Artemis looked for her in the southern part of the temple, and Diana in the north. The redhead searched literally everywhere. Cabinets, armories, basement, boxes. She even searched the section where the breeding men lived. It wasn't a big building, so she soon realized that Lena must have left the temple.

Her anger mingled with the first pang of worry. When she met Diana again, she was starting to worry too. I will punish her for two weeks. Diana hurried out of the temple and rose into the air, searching for her while yelling her name. Artemis met some of her Amazon sisters and asked if they hadn't seen Lena. No one had seen her, but they all started looking for her. Three weeks. I'll make her breathe carrots.

They had spent forty horrible minutes when Akila, her biological sister who was her rival for Shim'Tar's position, had sounded the alarm. Artemis felt her heart escape from her chest when she realized that the voice had come from the river. She trotted up to where other Amazons were already crowding. When she pulled them away, she found a totally wet Akila, holding a yellow moon-shaped stuffed toy dripping with water.

Someone let out a moan akin to that of a dying animal. Artemis realized that it had been her.

The woman who awoke from a nightmare

8:10 PM

"...We thought you had run away to play in the river."

She had her eyes closed. I refuse to cry. That will not happen. When Artemis was certain she would maintain her composure, she opened her eyes. Lena and Kara The Journalist stared at her with indescribable expressions.

I'm almost done. Just a little more.

"We found the body three days later." She didn't dare look at Lena. "We went... three... days without eating or sleeping, and when we found it..." she blinked very fast to kill those tears that wanted to fall. "I know that Diana stayed very still and fell to the floor in silence, without taking her eyes off the corpse. As for me, I ... I don't remember what I did. There are several versions of the events. Some Banas told me that I attacked twenty people with a dagger, others said it was thirty people, with a sword. I only know that I lost consciousness." This isn't admitting weakness. I'm telling the truth to my daughter. Everything is fine. You're almost done. "The body was... was..." She bit her lip with all her strength. She felt the metallic taste of blood. Just. Stop. That. Was. Not. Lena. "The body had signs of three days of decomposition. V-various animals had..."

It came as an almost absurd surprise when the blonde girl pounced on her and wrapped her in her arms. Her mind couldn't believe she was being hugged tightly. Very tightly. Artemis gritted her teeth and rejected her natural urge to push the girl away. No. Instead, she stood still, allowing the girl to hug her. The girl (Kara, it's Kara) was trembling slightly.

"An innocent child died. Lillian is a monster," Kara whispered, so low that only Artemis could hear.

Lena's eyes met hers, the same color of green talking in silence. Lena had a hand pressing on her girlfriend's shoulder, as if she needed to touch her to know that everything was absolutely real. Tentatively, biting her lip, Lena took the redhead's hand and squeezed lightly.

Fine, just one tear, just one. Artemis was frustrated when she spilled three. Damn it.

Five minutes passed in which Artemis allowed Kara to embrace her, after which the blonde girl let go of her and returned to her place next to her girlfriend. Her eyes were slightly red, but she didn't look embarrassed in the slightest. What kind of strange force does this girl have? She has the eyes of a seventy-year-old woman, who has seen worlds disappear and be born. She has eyes like Diana's.

Lena sighed. "And that's why Diana never came back from her... from our... from Themyscira?"

"She was never able to return to Bana-Mighdall either." Artemis was relieved, relieved that the worst had already happened. "I never went back either. Not even when Queen Anahid died and was succeeded by her daughter Karna. Akila is Shim'Tar now. As far as I know, she is doing it very well."

Lena sighed, closed her eyes for a moment, let the tension leave her body, and rose. She took her cell phone, watched her for a moment, and started typing.

"Who are you texting, Lena?" Kara asked.

"Maggie." The brunette answered without looking up. "Kara, we'd better change clothes. It's 8:20, but we have to be ready before it gets late. This isn't going to wait until tomorrow. "

"What are you talking about?" Kara raised her eyebrows.

"We'll go to my home." Lena shook her head vigorously. "I mean we're going to Luthor Manor, just outside Metropolis."

"What? Lena, are you...?"

"I'm sure," Lena said. "I've lived in that house all my life. Or at least, all the life I remember. I never thought I'd go back, but I have no choice if I want to discover the truth." Lena pursed her lips. "Now go get your pants on, please, Puppy."