"Wait!" My voice was quiet, still processing the surprise I was hit with. "What do you... You mean that... that you're responsible for me being here?" I asked as I gently grabbed her wrist and pulled it away.
I blinked unsure of what to feel.
A sort of small relief that comes from being given an answer to a question I've long abandoned.
Shock? Yeah, sure, that too because I did not see that coming.
Anger? A little bit, yeah. I had already made peace with being here in this world. It was just a comic fluke. Something that happened as it does to all people in self insert stories. I mentally accepted that.
But now I suddenly find out there was a reason I was here. That someone acted and one purpose brought me here? Changed my being and made me what I am?
...The anger was still there a little, but... it felt distant.
The image of Euryale went through my mind. The memory of the decision I made to go on this path of my own will, sprung up.
Ultimately... this doesn't change anything.
However, a mystery that wasn't important, now became much more prominent.
"Yes, my child. Why do you sound discontent?" Pasiphaë immediately had a sad look in her eyes.
"I'm not, just..." I began to say, taking a moment to think of how to form my thoughts.
"Then let us retire to the dining area. I'll make you a meal. A duty as a mother I can finally fulfill." She said smiling again, and I couldn't help but return her expression.
"...Yeah. Sure." I said.
As she walked with me following her, a thought occurred to me.
"Mother!" I spoke up. "Just... normal food. Animals, fish, fruits, that type of thing." I said. "No, nothing... sapient. Nothing human." I said more firmly.
"Of course, my child." She said with pain in her voice. "Never again. You never have to to be forced to eat as such again."
The dining room was much smaller than I thought a two thousand plus year old, former queen would have. It looked more like one for a normal apartment.
Table was big enough for a family of five, so technically still small when I sat there.
"Here! I've hunted down this deer in preparation of your arrival." Pasiphaë said.
And literally, fully, it was a whole grilled deer. The grilled part felt weird, because... how good is her precognition, or divination to know I prefer meat to be grilled, than heated.
"This is a normal deer, right?" I asked, just to check.
"Of course! What else would it be?" Pasiphaë blinked in confusion.
"Just... checking that you didn't kill some kind of magic, or sacred deer or something." I laugh jokingly, trying to play it off.
However the sorceress's eyes went dark.
"Son, I'd appreciate you not comparing me to the witless stumblebum that had ruined my life with his greed." Pasiphaë voice held no warmth, like what she was speaking with thus far. "I would not act like Minos and involve myself with the gods and their machinations, just to satisfy a base desire. I'd think you would know better than to accuse me of that, my son."
"Sorry, sorry." I held my hands up, a gesture to placate her. "It's just, I'm... a little taken aback by this meeting, and what you... revealed so I'm... adjusting." I said slowly, as I really was still throw off by everything.
Her eyes softened once more.
"Of course, this is still overwhelming for you. To be alive and with your mind whole, rather than devolving to that of a beast. I'm sorry for getting so heated. The thought of being like Minos or dealing with the gods," she gritted her teeth, and I guess I understand. She had first hand experience of the shit gods tend to do without care. For me, I never suffered anything from them in this life, so I'm still detached from it all. "At least not without preparation to strike them of course. Tear off their divinity, and rip them to pieces, and only laugh while they are powerless." She laughed.
An evil laugh.
Okay. Berserk button and madness button discovered.
"...Okay." I just said and ripped off one of the deer's legs and just chowed on it like it's an anime giant drumstick.
Pasiphaë smiled, and used a knife to cut off a piece for her self, to eat with a plate of rice.
The two of us sat quietly for a while. It felt... comfortable. Which made it feel off for me. Like why would I feel relaxed with someone I don't know? Yet I just didn't feel any discomfort or hidden hostility from Pasiphaë, and I guess I reflected that back?
After a while, my thought were more centered. I put down the half eaten deer leg.
"Mother," I began, getting her attention, as she looked at me intendedly. "When I first awoke and found myself in my current... form. State of being, really, I didn't think too much about. I thought it was some cosmic coincidence, or just a fluke of some sort. The question of why I appeared in this world was one I had no interest in finding an answer for, as it seemed like something that couldn't be answered." I said. "That's why, um, I'm overwhelmed to find out that you were the cause. So my question is... Why?"
Pasiphaë looked down, a melancholic expression on her face.
"As an immortal," she finally began. "You'd think that you would have no wants. No desires. Yet, what your sorcery teachers, and ancient wisemen don't tell you is, the one thing immortality ensures you gain, is an endless amounts of regret." Pasiphaë said slowly, meeting my eyes with a sad smile. "We become like stones at the bottom of a river. Things move around us, but our story is already set and told. There is nothing that can be done about it. Nothing to change. Even if I wished to be the mother I couldn't. I can't have my son. There's only the Minotaur, and the beast cares for nothing but violence." She sighed. "The only way we could communicate... interact at all, is through power and domination." She gave a joyless laugh. "We have met a few times. Worked together for some scheme or another against some demigod. Yet inevitably, one arrives and shatters my new goal, whatever it was at the time. The Fates ensuring that I can become nothing more than the mother of the Minotaur. The sorceress of little significance and nothing else."
I'm sorry to hear that. That's what I wanted to say, yet felt it wasn't what she wanted to hear.
"What changed?" I asked instead.
Here she smiled again, as she looked at me.
"Every year I'd sit under the star of Uranus, trying to divine... something. A way to break down the order of the gods. A way to gain power. A change out of this... cycle, that my existence had become." She chuckled. "The Great Stirring is rising, so maybe one of those is on its way to happen." Yeah, Kronos, Gaea. Lots of shit coming to the demigods of this world. I'd wish them all the luck, but they have the Fates rigging the game for them. "Yet, I still felt something was missing. I didn't even know what I wanted anymore." She said lost in thought. "But then on another night, of divining the stars under the light of Uranus, I had a vision!" She grinned widely.
"A vision?" I asked.
"I saw you!" She said enthusiastically. "You looked different. You looked as you are now, but I knew it was you, Asterios. You as Asterios not as the Minotaur. You were there, with a group of humans, a minor goddess, and some pirates. You face off against those damnable heroes! Even Heracles himself, even if he looked different and won! Standing valiantly against overwhelming odds." Tears began falling from her eyes. "You died, yet you were happy. You were loved by the mortal and that goddess." ...Holy shit, what the fuck!? How did she see the events of Okeanos from another fucking worldline!? Naaaah, that's too much coincidence. A vision? The fuck? "I awoke up startled, wanting... wanting to try and create you!" She said, voice almost turning fanatic. "I tried to work on some, some... some summoning spell, a ritual, something. The only idea I had in mind was to bring out the human part of you. Except that was foolish, for all your blood was divine. Yet, the belief toward you is half-bull, half-man. I thought if I emphasized the second part, an incarnation of you could arise close to what you are, except..."
"Except?"
"I was inspired!" She said with a wide smile. "Since that vision, my senses were heightened. I thought to divine a method and recalled the spell that human magician used to summon his protectors, in that vision. Thus I sought to replicate it. Yet, that spell is only meant to summon an instance of the hero guardian they wished to have by their side. I sought to summon all of you to me, while emphasizing the more humane part, like the Asterios I saw in that journey upon endless oceans." She said.
I'm beginning to see how I arrived an amalgamation of the Minotaur, Asterios and I. I tried not to think about how its possible some poor sap likely got sacrifice for this ritual to summon or anchor the "human" part of me. Since Pasiphaë would want less of the monster part.
So one part human, either a sacrifice, or I was just thrown in here by coincidence.
One part Fate Asterios from using a modified Servant Summoning magic circle.
And one part the Archetype of the Minotaur via what she wanted to summon.
So she used Fate Asterios as an anchor or a magnet to summon all other parts of the Minotaur, thus also making me gain the Archetype? At least that's the theory I had in mind for what happened. Given that I remember pulling all the parts of myself as the Minotaur to myself before I manifested in this world.
"I see..." I slowly said. "When did you do this ritual?" I asked curiously.
"Fifteen months ago." Pasiphaë said somberly. "I came here, to this accursed place as it held the strongest connection to you, even if I wish it wasn't so. I even used one of your instances to be sure of success." I looked deep into the memories of the Minotaur and... Okay that took some digging through, but yep. Watching 'myself' be ritually sacrificed by a naked Pasiphaë covered in blood and starlight was fucking disturbing. I shut off the memory because I did not need to see the whole thing. "When I had finish the ritual I awaited with bated breath for you.
"Yet... you never appeared." She looked resigned. "I accepted that this place would be my prison for good as it once was for you then. I had no wish to leave. All plans and schemes just seemed... unimportant." Then her smiled came back to her. "But then you came to me after all. I could not believe that my fortune had finally changed. That I have you back again. That you're here for me." I tried to make sure to keep my smile up, and not reveal that if it hadn't been for Daedalus telling me, I wouldn't be here. "So tell me Asterios, where have you been? What have you done since you became your true self?" She asked excitedly, like a mother asking about your day.
Oh boy.
Yet something she said stuck in my mind.
"Fifteen months." My mind raced at this date. I arrived in this world almost exactly a year ago in August. Three months before that would be... "Percy Jackson." I blinked as it clicked for me.
Pasiphaë did the ritual during May, around the same time Percy killed the Minotaur with his own horn.
"The son of Poseidon? What of him?" She narrowed her eyes.
"Fifteen months ago Percy Jackson killed the Minotaur that was chasing him and his mom, using the monster's own horn." I said, making Pasiphaë's eyes widened. "Reenacting the same myth as when Theseus defeated the bull." Pasiphaë was deep in thought as she looked away. "Was there a specific reason you did the ritual then?" I wondered.
"N-No, I just..." Pasiphaë blinked a few times as she thought about it, before looking back at me. "Originally I was going to do the ritual in October or November when Uranus would be visible in the sky again, yet..."
"Yet?"
"I felt it necessary to do the ritual in May. That if I didn't do it then I'd somehow miss the chance to succeed." She smiled in content. "It felt right to do the ritual in May, for it felt like stealing you back from Saturn." At my confused look, she elaborated. "That planet is the Roman name of the Crooked One. It is visible in May. It seems I've been guided by the Fates after all."
"Y-Yeah," I nervously chuckled. "It seems like it." I looked away.
"So tell me, Asterios." Pasiphaë smiled. "What have you been doing since you become yourself? What took you so long to find me?"
Oh boy.
"Well for starters, I only..." what word to use? "Manifested as I am, how I am now exactly a year ago. I wager that the time difference between your ritual and my manifestation was due to me collecting all of the Minotaur in that time."
"Truly?" She asked, looking fascinated.
"Yeah," I chuckled. "As for what I was doing during that time, well..."
Bit by bit I told her my story of going to Westover, of trying to make a videogame, or guarding and teaching the children of Hades. She didn't look upset at me mentioning Bianca and Nico, so I hope her hatred of demigods lessened.
"Ooooh, my little baby's in love. Already you're trying to court a wife?" Pasiphaë commented with a giggle.
"Eeeeh, kinda? I wouldn't exactly call it courting." I coughed in embarrassment.
"There have been much worse courtships. Trying to turn that hideous monster, Euryale into a wife? That is a dedication any woman would cherish, my son." Pasiphaë said, and while what she said was a... compliment, I couldn't help but frown. I didn't like her badmouthing Euryale, even if I know she's not talking about the one I loved. "Of course I don't mean to insult the woman you love, Asterios. I've seen her in my vision and she is worthy of you." She said with a smile.
I decided to move on the topic. "That ritual you used to manifest me, can you use it on another being?" I asked. Maybe I can skip the whole "using stories to influence human cultural subconscious" thing all together.
"You wish to use it to bring forth your Euryale, the one from your other life's memories, while using the Archetype of the Gorgon Euryale to empower and sustain her here like you." She said and I nodded. "I'm afraid that's not possible." She shook her head. "I needed two important things in order to summon you. A place of strong connection for you to be summoned to, which I do not understand why appear here in the Labyrinth, yet it was still necessary.
"The second, well, was your legend. The story of the Minotaur is know wide and far. Together the pieces of you into one whole, the pieces need to exist. Euryale's myth is forgotten, not even remember as secondary to her more famous sister, Medusa. And as a place of significance to her, the Shapeless Isles are also gone." She explained, and I sighed in disappointment. Well, I guess nothing changes. "I'd say your path is still the correct one." She praised. "And I'm sure you came to me for help, right? Then I will sure to aid you, Asterios. Just tell me what help you need and I'll deliver it." She grinned with a gleam in her eyes.
Wow, she's... enthusiastic.
"Before that..." I sighed hating that this peace was about to end. "I should tell you something. I had sought someone to help me with publishing the game and all. Some you might... find disagreeable."
"I trust your judgement, Asterios. I'm sure whomever they are—" Pasiphaë began.
"It's Daedalus." I decided to rip off the band aid on that one.
And just like that, the happy mood was gone again, as Pasiphaë lost all expression leaving an ice cold mask.