Hero of the Legion
The Goddess enigmatically refused to answer any questions at the Victory Council. There were many questions levied at her, but they were all intercepted by her priestesses or ignored outright. It seemed as though she was waiting for something, determining the right moment to speak or anticipating the question she wanted to answer above all others.
Her priestesses kept the crowd calm, answering most questions with the information the Goddess had provided them with. The attack was a single centuriae. There will likely be no more attacks. Ouroboros will not need to relocate. The Goddess knew it would happen and had previously taken steps to contain it. No, Caesar doesn't know about Hecate or her power. Finally the question the Goddess had been waiting for came.
"Will we retaliate?" Once the matter of Ouroboros' and the Daughters' safety was resolved, it was only natural for the Daughters to move on to vengeance. A priestess unwisely attempted to answer after a moment's silence but the Goddess quieted her with a simple gesture.
"Shouldn't we take the fight to them? This is an act of aggression. What are you saying by not killing a hundred legionaries for every one of our dead?!" the Daughter continued, growing indignant. It was Sibyl Yvana, still grieving over the loss of the guard captain. The Goddess was fascinated by her outburst of emotion. The Goddess knew very few of her followers personally, but she knew all of them from dossiers she kept. She had long seen her followers as abstract concepts, the way she observed much of the wasteland. For so long she had seen Yvana and her sisters as a collection of data and reports, and now to be confronted by a living breathing person with thoughts and feelings made the Goddess bemused. She did not dwell on her detachment long before beginning her speech.
"The man who lead the attack on Ouroboros was a Centurion named Scipio Venator, and he is the greatest hero the Legion has ever known," her voice echoed through the hall, stunning the Daughters into silence. Hecate had established a PA system for just such an occasion. It wouldn't fool any Daughters from vaults, but Daughters like Athena, who were from tribes were awed. Even Atia had never heard someone speak over a PA before, and concluded that the Goddess' voice was so much louder than Caesars she must be divine. Her voice was so loud it took a moment for her words to actually sink in. Hecate waited.
"Centurion Scipio Venator, a man unlike his hundreds of companions, was able to decipher patterns. He was able to look past what was immediately in front of him, to correlate data and create a picture," even as she spoke, the Goddess knew her high priestess was burning all of the meticulously collected data and collaborated facts that Scipio had compiled over the years to ashes, "A picture which revealed the greatest conspiracy against Caesar and his Legion that the southwest wasteland will ever see. He uncovered a threat so grave, it takes precedence over all other enemies of the Legion. And so he acted."
The Daughters were confused. Very few of them had ever heard the Goddess speak, much less praise a Centurion or any Legionary. Did this man not just attack us? they wondered. Did the actions of this man not lead to the deaths of some of our own? To praise him, as the Goddess seemed to be doing, was in poor taste at the very least.
"He defied the will of Caesar himself, because he knew no one would see the threat like he did. None of his peers would see the patterns and put together the threat posed against the Legion, so massive in scope as to be unbelievable. And they didn't believe it. This man, the Centurion Scipio Venator is the greatest hero of the Legion, as not only did he take action against their greatest enemy, he did so risking the ridicule and contempt that his peers would no doubt award him. He hoped, against hope, that his sacrifice would lead the Legion here, that his desperate actions would save the Legion he loved so dear."
"But he has failed. The Legion is no more aware of the threat posed to them now than they were before. Centurion Scipio Venator is dead and so are his Legionaries. He has failed, but no more than the Legion has failed him. For the Centurion's sacrifice, for his hard work, for his obsessive dedication to Caesar and the Legion, they have branded him a traitor. A pariah. Even now, only a few scant weeks after his disappearance, they are already spitting and cursing his name," she spoke with vitriol but was smiling a wolfish grin, "This, my Daughters, is how the Legion treats it's heroes. And if the Legion treats it's heroes this way, with rejection and scorn; then we, the Legion's greatest enemy, are assured victory!"