Wonder Woman
The Harpies of Themyscira
Chapter 2
It was… Beautiful. Nothing like what her mother told her of this world. She heard stories. Stories of a blasted landscape pitted and scored. A warzone where women fought tooth and nail against their male oppressors. An eternal battle between what was just and what was cruel. Instead, she strolled through a well manicured garden. One filled with trees that were active with the chirps and squeals of songbirds in every canopy, flower bloomed shrubs and bushes lined either side of the smooth stone pavements with every colour imaginable. In the clearing of freshly cut grass, she could make out groups of people lounging on tartan-coloured rugs of thin cloth, eating food and drink from a nearby basket while sitting in the shade of brightly coloured parasols. Some played with brightly colored balls or passed disks to each other in a game she did not recognise. She almost fell into a stop to take it all in until she heard a voice call out her name.
“Diana? Earth to Diana. Come on, it can’t be THAT great, it’s only John Marshal Park.”
Blinking, she turned her head to smile back at Steve, the man smiling back with a strange look, almost like he was holding back laughter when Diana stepped aside in surprise to a trio of people gliding by the path on wheeled shoes. On the other side of the clearing, she could see a pair of what she swore were mechanical horses made of wheels and pedals a men and women were riding as they rode out of sight.
There was just so much to take in all at once. “It’s just so… So… It’s wonderful Steven Trevor.”
Chuckling a little bit, the man shook his head, his smile still on his face as he felt her smiling infectious. On their way down the path, Steve pointed out some landmarks here and there; the Washington monument, the arts and industry building, the Reflection Pool leading to the Lincoln memorial. On their walk, Diana noticed several couples and families pass by, many of which had children with them that made her heart melt… but one thing stood out for her in each pair who passed them by.
“Why are they holding hands?”
Blinking back at the question, Steve Trevor followed her eyes to a couple walking hand in hand while sharing a drink on their walk.
“Well… It means they’re together.”
Seeing so many couples walking through the park, Diana looked down at Steve’s open hand and reached out for it, looping her fingers through his. Looking down at her holding his hand, Steve was a little taken back, but his smile never faltered. If anything, it only grew.
*
Waking up in bed to the warm sunlight cutting through the windows of her personal quarters in the palace, Diana rubbed her eyes and sat up. It was morning. Getting up out of bed and standing to her full height, Diana shook her long dark hair loose and went to a basin full of clear water in front of a polished mirror. Splashing water over her face, she gave herself a look over. Her eyes sparkled like sky blue sapphires in her reflection, her skin supple smooth and without a trace of scars or blemishes, despite the many battles she had fought through. Her black hair flow over and down her shoulders, framing her beautiful face and only accentuating her beauty. Exhaling and leaving a plume of steam on the mirror’s surface, Diana turned away and got dressed.
Stepping out of her quarters, she found two guards at alert, clicking their heels just as Diana closed the door to her chambers. Looking to them both, it sunk her heart to see them as they were. Their hair was dry, brittle, unkempt. Their skin weathered and sick looking, riddled with blotches and spots that looked marred with disease. Even as they tried to maintain a stern façade, their faces were drawn, elderly. Their eyes sunken in and glassy, their stiff lip betraying misshapen teeth.
“Bad dream my princess?” The guard asked, her voice cracked and hoarse. “A nightmare?... Worse than this one?”
“A memory Atla, a fond one from long ago.”
Nodding, despite not understanding the context, the guard nodded down to the end of the hall. “Our sisters are training in the courtyard for morning regiment, our General Nubia is waiting for you.”
“Her along with Generals Aello and Ocypete.” Answered the other guard, a hood over her head to cover her face. Turning to see her, it saddened Diana to see Episteme hid her face and hair, out of shame.
“Thank you, my sisters, be well, in time I will try to resolve this curse.”
Nodding back at their princess and taping their shields with the gauntlet’s holding their spears, Diana made her way down the marble halls and columns. Behind her, she could hear the two guards, their words making her feel worse as she heard Atla mutter that they should never had gone to man’s world.
Making her way out in the open air, Diana could find hundreds of her sisters training, sparring, honing their martial skills as they would every day. Their appearance was painful to see. Frail looking, misshapen, twisted and gnarled like the branches of a tree, their bare skin liked as cracked and gnarled as the branches of the oaks in their forests. Their hair was clumped and frayed, so much so many of them wore hoods to cover their faces, and wore additional armor to cover their bodies… And yet, their strength had not diminished. She could see two of the royal guards sparring with the same strength, speed, and ferocity as they normally would. Off in the distance she could see a dozen of her sisters draw back arrows to fire at straw and clay targets with the same practiced ease they always had.
This told her the wish only effected their appearance. They had not been robbed of their warrior heritage, only their majesty and beauty. At the very least that gave her some hope. Out in the distance she could hear Aello and Ocypete bark commands to the Amazons in their training, citing stories of long past victories to set standards as they judged their militia’s prowess. Taking a few steps into the training grounds, several amazons bowed to their princess on her walk, while others stared back at her with jealous eyes.
“So, our ‘beautiful’ princess decides to grace us with her presence?” Chided Seena, formally a beautiful blonde haired amazon woman with striking blue eyes. Now those eyes were pale and milky, set to a scolding face withered and aged to crone-like humility.
“I’ve come looking for Nubia Seena. And I do not know why my friend would curse you so, but I intend to find a way to undo it.”
“Of course, he’d go easy on YOU, the whore of man’s world” Gasping, Seena dropped her spear as she felt her skin crawl, alerting everyone there as she shuddered. Her once lovely hair shed off her scalp in strands, and her fingernails grew long and chipped, forcing the woman to fall to her knees and whimper.
Shocked, Diana was beside herself with guilt. When she took a step forward towards her sister with an outstretched hand, the elderly looking Seena hissed a sneer at her princess. Telling Diana more than she needed to know that her help was not welcomed. With some hesitation, she walked on, leaving Seena to be tended to by the rest of her sisterhood.
Checking further through the training grounds, she found Nubia standing with her arms crossed barking out words of encouragement to two of her finest practicing their lance work, just as Atla and Episteme said. Joining the woman, Nubia turned to eye the princess and her features, as tanned and leathered as they were, softened ever so slightly in a cracked smile. Her pleated hair hung from her crown like rotten leaves from a weed, and her eyes were a milky pale grey. But even so, Diana’s blood sister smiled as best as she could and greeted Themyscira’s Wonder Woman.
“Diana, good morning.” She spoke with a gurgled cough, sharing an embrace with the princess as they moved to a table and two chairs were a clay bowl sat with offered fruit for breakfast. “Did you sleep well?”
“I did… But my dreams were troubled. I could not let go of the past, nor could I reconcile on why my friend had made such a wish.”
Sitting back more sharply, Nubia frowned, looking almost bristled. “Aello and Ocypete claimed their visit to Man’s world was fool hardy, this entire affaire has not been without…” At that moment, the mocha-skinned woman blinked and slouched back in her chair, crossing a leg over the other and draping her arm over the arm rest of her chair. “Did you know I spent last night hopping from one body to the next, lookin for something sweet to eat? Like this place doesn’t have ANY chocolate, at ALL!”
Boston?!”
Raising her hands up in mock defense, Nubia snorted and moved to give her rear a feel. “Yeah, yer probably right, introduce this girl to some Hershey’s chocolate and she’d have more junk in the trunk than a Gran Torino on a garbage run.”
“Boston, why did you do this?” She asked the man possessing her sister. “They are my sisters, my people, my FAMILY. You tore away their natural beauty and scarred their bodies, made them hideous to themselves, and for what?”
Leaning back in the chair and crossing Nubia’s arms, the elderly looking woman spat a raspberry and rolled her eyes. “I didn’t make’em ugly Diana, I just made’em easier to look at.”
Taken back, Diana gripped the table with such intensity the marble chipped. “H-how can you SAY that?! My sisters are GOOD people Boston.”
“Right, right, COURSE they are…” Scoffed Boston, rolling Nubia’s eyes again with a crooked smirk. “So, what do you call burnin a guy alive for the crime of showin up at yer front door? You realised they were planning dinner while they were roasting me alive, right?” Seeing Diana hesitate to answer, Boston continued. “There’s a sayin where I come from Dee; beauty is skin deep. Well, I took that saying, rolled it into a little ball and tossed it out the frickin window! Now everyone here looks like what they REALLY are deep inside. Every act of contempt or apathy, every bruise and scar they inflicted, every backhanded comment, every dirty low down thought they’ve ever had, they wear on their faces now. And whether you agree with it or not, it AIN’T pretty!”
Gripping the table more tightly, the surface cracked, just as she slowly leaned back in her chair, unable to refute what Boston was telling her. “So, that’s it then? My mother and sisters are doomed to a life where they cannot stand to see each other’s sins?”
Raising Nubia’s hands and shaking her head, Boston snorted. “Only if that’s what they want for themselves Dee...” Losing the smirk, the woman folded her hands together on the table and looked deeply into Diana’s eyes. “Have you never considered why YOU didn’t go all wicked witch o’the west like the others? Think about that Diana.”
Sitting straight and blinking in confusion, Nubia looked down and out to the courtyard and back to her sister, finding Diana with a look of worry and deep in self reflection. “What… What was I doing?”
Seeing that Boston was no longer in control of Nubia, Diana sat up to stand and rested a hand on the woman’s shoulder. Confusing Nubia somewhat, especially Diana’s answer. “You have giving me much to think on Boston. We will speak of this again when you are ready to talk my friend, for now I must see to my mother.”
Still confused, Nubia nodded and stood to her own feet, returning to her duties while Diana left to find the Queen.
*
The purple light was… Serene. Peaceful. She could feel it wash over her like a gentle touch, one that massaged and soothed every ache she had in her body. The purple ray has been with her people for centuries, as a means of healing, thanks to her daughter’s ingenuity and unflappable kindness. Every time it was used, her people would walk away unblemished, their physical scars gone, their emotional scars faded, like bad memories slowly being forgotten. She had personally seen the most gravely injured and utterly broken be brought towards the purple ray, and come out whole, complete, at peace. To lay in the presence of the purple ray’s light was like being blanketed over with the healing power of love itself.
Opening her eyes and bringing her hands up to see, the queen opened and closed her leathered, frail looking fingers and sighed deeply. Crossing her hands over her heart, Queen Hippolyta sat up and turned to look to the others in the healing room. Many of her people were beside themselves, some sitting against the wall, rocking back and forth muttering to themselves, while others cried and wailed. Trying multiple sessions in the hopes of their appearance being restored and waking to find those hopes dashed.
On her way out, the queen straightened herself, trying to maintain her dignity as her eyes fell upon her people’s despair. Seeing them in such misery pulled at her heart, some were so ashamed of their appearance they bound their faces in sashes and hoods, some covered themselves completely, horrified to be reminded of how hideous they had been turned into.
“Stop already! It’s my turn!”
Turning her attention to two of her sisters in arms, she watched as they fought over a lounger where the light continued to bask over. Both women grappled with one another, their blistered and aged faces were masks of jealousy and rage.
“You HAD your chance Myrina, the ray did you no favours.” Hissed Patrice, the dark-haired woman was haggard, her body a tapestry of pain and misery. “Perhaps sister, you should wear a linen sack over your head like the rest who are ashamed to look in a MIRROR!”
“Witch!”
“COWARD!”
“Sisters, that is enough.”
The tone was firm, her voice could be heard even by the rest of the amazons in the halls of healing even over their own sobbing and bickering. Immediately stopping to look up at their queen and realise what they had been doing. Many stood up immediately, bowing as best they could, while others stood stunned, unable to process the situation they were caught in. Seeing Myrina and Patrice finally catch themselves and stand straight, to salute and bow, Hippolyta could see the damage had been done, and more so. When they both looked up to see their queen, their appearance had become even more ravaged. New lines and crows’ feet blemished their eyes, their teeth now overgrown and uneven, like the chops of some slobbering animal.
“You are Amazons, the chosen of the gods, warriors without equal. And yet you squabble over your appearance, drunk on your own vanity.”
Caught off guard, the two Amazons traded looks, ashamed of their actions as were the rest in the halls of healing. Frowning, Patrice scowled. “The Man from the outside realm cursed us my Queen.”
Allowing her shoulders to slowly sink, the Queen looked down, silent, she looked to all her warriors, each of them with looks of horror, despair, and anger, before bringing her gaze back to the warrior woman, her sisters looking on for their queen’s response.
“No… We were not cursed, we were punished, by our Goddess of Justice.” Turning, Hippolyta left the chamber. “And rightly so…”
Stepping out into the open air to find her consort at the bottom of the steps, it did not surprise her that Phillipus wore a hood to obscure her face. Once her queen had reached the bottom step, she bowed but did not take her queen’s offered hand, only to hug herself as the two continued down the path of the royal ground of the palace.
“Has my daughter awoken?”
“Yes, Atla informed me she is currently walking the grounds as we speak.” Seeing her queen’s appearance had not changed, Phillipus gave a smile as best she could. “I take it the purple ray did not work?”
Nodding, the queen held herself high and made her way down the cobblestone walkway to the central gardens. “This affliction is a punishment my love. Perhaps… Perhaps this is something that we must live with from here on out.”
“If that is the case, why was your daughter spared this fate?”
“All the more reason to speak with her when I have the chance.”
*
Making her way down the garden paths of her mother’s palace to the rest of her home, Diana could see the rest of her mother’s groundskeepers and guards standing at alert, still bearing the marred, aged looks on their faces, robbed of their beauty and grace, now a punishment as she understood it after her talk with Boston. But the last thing he said still lingered in her mind.
“Beauty is skin deep… But not anymore.”
Looking up from her troubled thoughts, she found her mother and consort ahead of the path, the two looking up to her and waving as Diana hurried towards the two hugged her mother, holding the woman tightly in her embrace and then swiftly bowed graciously once she separated from her.
“Mother.”
“Daughter.”
Looking up, it pained her heart to see the two greatest of her people made frail looking, crone-like and twisted. Her mother bore the lines, grooves, and shallow hanging flesh of a mortal woman in her 90s, blemished with leathered skin, sunken eyes and hair made sickly and frayed. Phillipus’s face was obscured by a sash and hood, but even if she could not see the woman’s features, Diana knew why she wore what she did.
“I have spoken with Boston Brand mother.”
“The man who cursed us?” Phillipus asked, her tone firm and accusatory.
“Not a curse… Not a punishment… A lesson, this… All of this is meant to teach a lesson.” She gestured to the rest of her amazon sisters, each hiding their appearance but keeping to their duties.
Crossing her arms, Phillipus looked out to the suffering of the amazons and back to Diana. “If there is a lesson to this princess, we are blind to it.”
“Indeed, what did he tell you?”
Breathing steadily, Diana looked back at that conversation between her and her friend possessing her sister. “Beauty… WAS skin deep, but now it is a mirror to our inner selves, we are now a reflection of our best and worse actions.”
“What is that supposed to…?
A scream cut off the Queen’s open thoughts, alerting the guards who immediately took to arms and ran to where the cry came from. Without needing to trade looks, the royal family quickly ran to join them. Coming up to the source of the scream, Diana found it came from the royal stables, where a crowd of anxious guards and palace tenants tried to calm the horses and kangaroos to make way for their queen and princess.
“What’s going on?”
The guard, her face wrapped in a veil and hood, looked to her Princess, and narrowed her eyes. “The stablewomen were tending to the Queen’s horses when Episteme flew into a panic, she’s inside the stables now and refuses to exit.”
“Let me speak to her.”
Bowing, the guard let Diana pass. Letting the princess enter the stables alone and find Episteme herself while they tended to some of the horses who were spooked minutes earlier. Once inside, Diana found the sky lights had been closed, making the interior dark and difficult to see. Some of the horses nickered in Diana’s presence or stuck their heads out of their pens to sniff at her. Immediately recognising her as she paused to let them sniff at her hand and gently scritch under their chins.
“Episteme? Are you in here?”
Even though she did not hear an answer, she could hear the woman whimper at the far corner of the stable. Slowly approaching, Diana found an upturned bucket filled with feed for the roos, where one of the rideable kangaroos nibbled at while two others laid down where she could make out the amazon woman hunched up with her knees obscuring her hooded face. There she found the two roos nosing the woman, licking her face as she wept, but even in her anguish she brought her hands up to scratch and sooth the two animals nuzzling her.
“Please… Don’t look at me.” She whispered. “I’m hideous!”
Approaching to crouch in front of the woman, Diana extended her hand to the Amazon caretaker. “Please Episteme, tell me what happened.”
Pulling herself up more tightly, the woman kept her features hidden in the dark. “I… I was feeding the roos, just after I had brushed and tended to her highness’s steeds, Kallus… Kallus had been in dour spirits of late, so I snuck in an apple for her to nibble on.” She gestured to the Roo whose snout she patted gently, the animal licking at her hooded face. “Then… Then I felt it, that feeling when the ghost man cursed us, I could feel my body change, my skin crawl. I got scared… Please don’t look at me.”
Still offering her hand, Diana knelt and smiled down to the woman. “Episteme, it's alright, no matter what you appear, you are still my sister. What befell us… Was a punishment, but also a test. A test we are ALL facing together, so you are not alone.” Still hearing Episteme whimper, she did hear the woman pause and look up, her face still obscured by the hood she wore in the dark. “You think yourself hideous, but I know you were the first to eagerly want to tend to the Queen’s stables every day, when the others scoffed at the idea as beneath them. I’ve seen how the horses and roos come to you even without being called to do so. They do not judge you, neither will your sisters. So please, come with me.”
Hesitantly, the woman reached out and grabbed hold of Diana’s hand.
*
The Amazons outside stood and watched as they found their princess slowly come out of the stables with Episteme pressed close to her, the woman’s arms around Diana’s waist and her hooded head leaning against her shoulder.
Gathered around, the guards and their Queen watched as Wonder Woman stopped in the open and hugged Episteme, whispering that everything would be alright. Only to hear Aello stamp her spear to the ground to get everyone’s attention.
“So, did we enjoy the extra attention our little outburst demanded?” Hissed the woman, her cracked lips, and broken teeth in a rictus sneer back at her princess and the stablemaster. “There are NO excuses amongst my amazons at arms, you should always show discipline. Perhaps time in latrine duty shall reinforce your sense… Of…”
Stunned silent as the rest of the amazons were, they watched as Episteme pulled down her hood and unwrapped the sash she wore around her face. The moment she did, her long black hair flowed out from behind her in the light breeze, full, healthy, and vibrant as silk. Her face was beautiful, the elderly wrinkles were gone, the rot in her mouth replaced with perfect teeth and plump lips, the milky lifelessness in her eyes now vibrant and a sparkling sky-blue. Eyes that looked out to the rest of her sisterhood who stared paralysed in silent disbelief. Her appearance had been completely restored. Looking back at Episteme who looked on her sisterhood in shock, Diana was beside herself.
“How?”
*
Meanwhile, across the valley…
“Again!”
A bellowing war cry echoed out as the amazons struck out with spears in hand, stepped back and regaining their footing, poised to strike again.
“Again!”
The group of warrior women repeated the strike, stepping back to repeat their morning training rituals. It had been one of the few things to keep their minds off what had transpired the night before. They repeated their mantras over and over again, perfecting their craft. When their exercises were done, the Amazons of the Bana-Mighdall tribe had a moment in their idleness to take stock of who was standing next to them. Even now it was a harrowing sight. The tribe unlike those of the Themysciran Amazons were not blessed with immortality, their lives were lived in hardship while those of paradise island lived in splendour. Even so, the desert living tribe of warrior woman were renowned for the beauty as well as their ferocity. At least the latter had remained true. But the former however…
“I have been robbed. Robbed of what years I still may have left…”
Each of them all were the embodiment of enfeeblement. Their skin once supple and firm was now leathered and sagging from their limbs, riddled with moles and poxes that scarred their flesh and marred their faces. Their hair, once vibrant and fiery as their temperament had fallen out in greasy clumps like a sickness. Artemis fared no better, sneering at the state of her sisters as they hobbled, ashamed of their appearance. They all looked so… OLD, so frail. How many decades of life has that spirit leeched from her and her sisters? How much time did they have left?
The gods deemed to give that cursed spirit the say on their punishment, punishment for what? For attending an execution? For executing a trespasser? Such life-or-death decisions were common amongst her tribe. Unlike the amazons of this island, her sisters had to live day by day with the threat of being discovered, the threat of being exploited. Her world was harsh, and to survive was to be just as harsh herself. She could admit defeat from a superior foe, but to die of old age was an affront to her martial pride.
“Artemis! Sister!” Called out one of her amazon sisters, running back up from the city with a basket of food for their breakfast. The haggard looking crone kept a good pace running back, despite her appearance, bringing herself to a stop where the rest of her Bana-Mighdall sisters relaxed after training.
“Hola Kalla, did you get enough to eat after our workout?” The tall woman asked, her hands resting at her sides.
“Sister! One of the Amazons down in the city, she’s been restored!”
“WHAT?!” The rest of the sisterhood gasped in surprise, their eyes wide at the prospect as they gathered round Kalla, seeking answers. “How is it possible?” “Tell us sister.”
Offering the basket of breads and fruit to the others, Kalla explained herself to their leader, going over how one of the Queen’s stable masters miraculously had her beauty restored. The others gave a look of shocked disbelief, some looking to their unfamiliar hands shakily or clasping their hands to their faces.
“I need to see.” Stated Artemis, crouching down to see Kalla eye to eye as she distributed food. “Where is she? This… Episteme?”
*
The crowd of amazon women flocked around the dark haired stablemaster, still in disbelief while her sisters surrounded her, cupping her face in their hands or feeling her hair to see if it were all real. Much to all their surprise, it was. Staring back at the blushing Episteme while a dozen of the elderly, gnarled Amazons hovering around her, Diana stood by her mother, watching as Episteme smiled and covered her face with her hands.
“A miracle? A stay of punishment perhaps?” Wondered Phillipus, scratching her chin in thought.
Hippolyta looked to her consort and back to her daughter and back to Episteme. “No… This could not be unique, there is more to what is going on.”
“That the Amazons appeared as beautiful or as hideous as the deeds they perform.”
Both looking to Diana as she watched all the fawning of the stablemaster, the Queen and steward were left in confusion. “What was that my Diana?”
“The wish Boston Brand was granted, he said that we would appear as beautiful or as hideous as the deeds we perform. Perhaps that’s the key?” Turning to face her mother, she took the Queen’s hands in hers, her face softened to feel the woman’s fingers so blistered and shallow. “Episteme told me she felt the change when she tried to improve the mood of one of the roos, Kallus. She brought an apple with her to give to him.”
“An act of kindness.” Muses Phillipus.
“Could it be that simple?”
The three women thought on that, until their attention was diverted to a voice calling out in the distance.
“YOU THERE! WHERE IS THIS EPISTEME?” Called out Artemis, storming through the royal grounds towards the crowd of amazons still surrounding the stablemaster as she stood up to see who was calling her out. Shoving her way through, Artemis’s face was a grim scowl as her eyes fell on the beautiful woman. With her hands at her sides, the representative of the Bana-mighdall glared down at the dark-haired woman, her lip curling into a sneer at the woman in front of her.
Her eyes were a sparkling blue, like sapphires. Her skin so smooth and unblemished, she looked to have been carved from polished marble, and her hair, so full and vibrant it cascaded down her shoulders like water. Seeing the Themysciran native trace a finger to pull back a strand of that hair made Artemis grimace more for it. To the surprise of everyone there, Artemis grabbed the woman by the front of her robes and pulled her close, narrowing her eyes.
“You… You will tell me how this is possible, or so help me you will answer to the ENTIRE Bana-Mighdall tribe!”
Frowning, Diana quickly approached the warrior woman, meaning to get between her friend and the sister tribe’s representative. “Artemis, you will cease in this…”
“NO!” Roared the former red-haired woman, tightening her grip. “Look at us! LOOK AT US! YOU may have your precious immortality, but WE DON’T! That wretched ghost cursed us, stripped us of our youth, and if there is a way of getting it back, I will do what is necessary to find the answers!”
Letting go of Episteme for only a second, Artemis pulled a hidden knife from the bracer bound around her arm and grabbed hold of Episteme’s neck. “Even if I have to…”
She had seen and heard enough. Grabbing hold of the wrist Artemis gripped at her dagger, the blistered, sagging face of the Bana-Mighdall Amazon was one of contorted rage as she dropped Episteme to the ground and gave a battle cry as she tried to strike back at Wonder Woman. Wrestling herself free and backing off, Artemis crouched and flipped the blade so that it would stick between her enclosed fingers like a stinger, ready to strike as she continued to glare hatefully back at Diana and the stablemaster being helped up by the others.
“You will not raise a hand to my sisters and friends Artemis.”
“And YOU do not determine the fate of MY people.” She hissed back, her eyes twitching as she felt her body shiver. Everyone stood back in horror as they heard the crunch of bone and pull of skin, like the wringing of rope fraying. Artemis coughed and groaned as she became hunched over, clumps of her hair falling from her scalp as her finger and toes nails grew long and chipped. Looking back at Diana, Artemis’s eyes were a milky white, save for a speck of color that seemed almost a stain for irises. Breathing hoarsely, she looked down at her free hand and blinked in horror. “Is THIS what you wanted? What your corpse friend wanted? This curse does not just afflict YOU princess of perfection, daughter of the god born, ALL amazons are afflicted with this curse! And they are DOOMED! ALL OF THEM!”
Shoving an amazon out of her way to exit, Artemis fled, but Diana did not give chase as those words rung through her head. She had not considered it until seeing Artemis’s twisted and ruined body. It was not just the people of Themyscira who had been affected by the wish, all amazons everywhere, regardless of tribe were likely living a nightmare brought upon by Boston’s wish. Turning to see if Episteme was alright, she found her other sisters helping the woman back to her feet, checking her over to see if she were unharmed, before taking to the air to fly off to the other side of the city.
Watching the Bana-Mighdall warrior escape and head back to her encampment outside the city, Hippolyta narrowed her eyes, and turned her attention to her generals.
“Aello.”
“Yes, my Queen?” The elderly looking warrior responded, stamping her spear to the ground, and clicking her heels together.
“I want you to keep an eye on our sister tribe while they are on our island, see to it they do not harm my people, or themselves in this crisis.”
Bowing, Aello nodded and made a hand gesture to the warriors behind her, where four of the royal guard stepped forward and joined her on the march to the city gates. Hippolyta watched them leave and turned to look up to where Diana had flown to.
“Where has she gone?”
“If I am right, she is going to the cavern of our oracles. Perhaps their wisdom and foresight will help guide her in this crisis.”
Hearing a cry from two of the amazons behind them, the Queen witnessed the two helping Episteme to her feet gasp and step back as their bodies shuddered. One of them gasped as they felt their bodies fill out, the drawn, almost emaciated flesh of their limbs filling with vitality, their wrinkles and blisters fading away as skin became smooth and perfect. Scratching to pull away their hoods, their hair grew anew, full, luscious, and flowing down their backs and shoulders like fine strands of silk. Everyone else could only look on with renewed joy and excitement as the changes ended, and they had been restored.
Overjoyed, the three embraced each other, smiling as warm tears fell down their perfect cheeks, their sparkling eyes full of joy and beauty. Despite herself, Hippolyta could not help but smile, perhaps this was not a curse after all. She only hoped the Bana-Mighdall would see the same soon.
*
Landing at the entrance of the mountain face entrance of her people’s oracles, Diana looked back to the city below and took her first steps within the carved and decorated entrance. The temple was as much a place to seek answers to the future as was to seek answers in the past. By that… It was also the burial place of some of their greatest, fiercest, and wisest warriors. Entering the dark chambers and picking up a lit torch to light her way through, she passed by the tombs and plinths that lined the interior of the mausoleum. Hundreds lined the great chambers, small tributes, and shrines to the warriors of the past. Looking to each one, every livery she passed by told the illustrious tales and exploits of former queens, champions, and heroes of the Amazonian people from centuries and millennia past. She had hoped and feared that she too would be amongst these greatest of greats in her future. But her mind cleared of those thoughts, and she went deeper into the temple.
Making her way further through the halls of her honoured dead, she came to enter a chamber lit by torches and matted with fine rugs and pillows for seating. Here, her people would commune with their most gifted of sisters, the oracles. Each a child of the gods, each gifted with the powers to foresee the past present and future at will. The domed structure, held up by arching marble buttresses with carvings and painting that lined all around the walls, told the stories of her people. Their journeys, their hardships, their missions, and their exodus from man’s world to their paradise of the present.
There at the center sat a trio of women chanting around the smoking embers of a fire. The wisping plume of the smoke circling the three and filling the air with a scent Diana recognised every time she came here for advice. The scent of burning flower pedals and spices that made her head feel heavy and her mouth dry.
“Who comes to speak with the Oracles?” Asked one with a raised, leathered hand. The oracle raised her hooded head and stared back at Diana as she approached and set her torch to the wall.
“My sisters, I am Princess Diana, daughter of Queen Hippolyta. I come to you in our hour of need, I seek answers, and wisdom to face the…”
“We KNOW why you are here.” Spoke up one of their own in a raspy voice, Calliope raising a gnarled hand that sported chipped, overgrown nails when the woman pointed up to get Diana’s attention. “You seek to know if the wish, granted by our Goddess of Justice has reached to the far corners of the world, to OUR people.”
“Yes. Has it?” She asked, anxiously.
Grabbing a small handful of blue, glittering powder from a wooden bowl by her feet, one of the oracles threw it into the hot embers of the fire where a spark of blue light flashed and filled the chamber with more smoke. Again, the scent filled the air until it was almost too heavy to breath in, and the three oracles raised their arms up, where the smoke concentrated and began to take shapes. Overhead, Diana could see a vision of the other tribes of the amazons. Like molded clay, the smoke formed a moving, living representation of a vast dessert where the hidden village of the Bana-Midghell resided. It’s people hidden in shame and horror of their current appearance, their wails heard even across the sands. Then the illusion changed again, to that of a lush, tropical jungle where the trees were like a city above the earth. There, the amazons of the Esquecida wept, covering their faces both to protect against the rain and to shun the sight of each other’s appearance. Once lithe and graceful, they had all become wracked and gnarled, twisted into broken shapes, and robbed of their beauty and vigor.
“We see them, we see them all. The daughters of Themyscira, the dispossessed of the Bana-Midghall and the secluded of the Esquecida are all afflicted by the ghost’s wish. Even now we hear their cries of despair, even now we see their looks of sorrow.”
Clasping a hand to her heart, Diana looked away from the heady illusion and back to the three oracles before her. “Is there a way to undo this?”
“Indeed, even now our people wither and rot in reflection to our…” Pausing, she and the other two oracles darted their gaze back and forth almost looking offended. Calliope muttered silently, her face one of annoyance and confusion before she resumed her mantra and breathed in the fumes of the smoke. “Hmm, tricky business undoing the wish of a goddess, especially one that represents justice. To undo such a terrible fate, our people must… YOU DARE MOCK OUR WISDOM?”
Leaning back, slightly confused of the woman’s outburst, Diana watched the three look up at the upper corner of their personal sanctuary before returning their gaze to the smoke and embers. “Bah… The MAN left the wish vague enough to encompass ALL amazons, and not just those who sought to punish him for his transactions.”
“Yes, but that may be where the solution lies, for… OF COURSE, WE CAN HEAR YOU! WHO DARES TO INTERRUPT US IN OUR DIVINE FORESIGHT?!” Called out Castelia, pulling back her hood to show she was just as elderly and dishevelled as her sisters in the city.
“Castelia, do not let the spirit bait you.” Calisto calmly gestured to her sister, seeing her get to her feet while Castelia pointed an accusing finger to the ceiling. “His actions have already caused us to… What in Hera’s name is Why Fie?”
“NO! We DO NOT have the scores to this game between the Giants and Broncos you speak of! Cease your maddening dribble! You taunt the daughters of Zeus! We who have been gifted the knowledge of… Oh I am going up there!”
“Sister!”
“No! He DARES to call me a ‘two-bit fortune teller’ and go unpunished?!” Quickly crawling her way across the room to a straw broom and pail, Castelia grabbed the cleaning tool and ran back to the center of the chamber, waiving the broom over her head up in the air as if to shoo away a bird, wafting the smoke away more and more while her two sisters tried to calm her down. “BEGONE VILE SPIRIT! DEPART FROM THIS MORTAL REALM!”
“Castelia, please calm yourself. You only make your condition wo… WHAT THE HELL DID YOU CALLED ME?!” Jumping to their feet, the other oracles scrambled with activity, yelling, and threatening up at the air above them, and flailing their arms as if to swat at a fly buzzing over their heads. “No! No, I am not a… WHOOPIE! You take that back you scoundrel!”
Back-to-back, the trio of oracles darted their paranoid eyes all around them, completely ignoring the princess who stared watching their behaviour with a baffled expression.
“You think you can HIDE from us? We who foretold the fall of Pompei, the sinking of Atlantis and the sundering of Crete? No! We shall find you spirit, and we shall EXORCISE you from our paradise.”
For a moment there was a pause, the three acting as if they were listening to something, and slowly tilting their heads in confusion. “What does he mean, we’re like the three stooges?”
“BASTARD!!!!!!”
Confused, and feeling awkward for having seen her people’s greatest advisors reduced to a trio of elderly witches chasing their visions like they were trying to shoo a hornet out of their home, Diana promptly turned and made her way back out of the temple. Blinking and shaking her head as she made her way out of the temple and looked back at the entrance, still hearing the oracles scream and dole out threats and war cries to the smoke around them. Resting her fingers to her brow, Diana could only make a face of fatigue before looking back to her home and making the way back on foot.
“Perhaps this has afflicted our people worse than I had assumed?”
*
Staggering her way back to her tribe’s encampment, Artemis hissed in anger as she stumbled again, unused to her hunched stance after her outburst in the royal gardens, Artemis picked herself up and looked back over her shoulder to the palace grounds she came from. Off at the distance she could see a small battalion of Themysciran Amazons marching down the path in her direction, obviously to keep an eye on her after her little stint with the royal stable keeper.
Looking down at her hand, it wasn’t hard to understand why. Once her hands were smooth, delicate, yet strong. Now they were gaunt, the fingers long and misshapen with chipped, overgrown fingernails. Legions and boils riddled the back of her hand and up her forearm where the skin hung off her despoiled flesh. Why did he curse them? Why? Why make them all frail and feeble looking, spitting in the face of their strengths? And why did he give it back to the weakest of them?! She could see it in that Episteme’s eyes. She was no warrior, there was no steel in her gaze or edge in her stance. The Themyscirans were even more soft than she realised if she let some of their weakest be used in the most mundane of tasks just to keep them around. Her tribe was strong because they removed their weaknesses. Her people were WARRIORS! Not these nebbish cowards whose only value was in their animal husbandry.
Clenching her hand into a fist, she picked herself back up and hobbled her way back to her sisters. The moment she had made it to the tents and campfire of her Bana-Mighdall eating their meal, she curled her lip and stopped dead in her tracks to find them all surrounding Kalla… A now beautiful and youthful Kalla who continued to trace her delicate fingers over her features, still in disbelief. Looking up to their leader, the rest of the amazons gestured for her to join them, offering bread and fruit. Gritting her teeth to the point of bleeding down her lip, Artemis remained silent, and returned to her sisters to have her breakfast.
*
The path back to the city was a relatively short one from the mountains. It gave Diana time to process what she had seen and learned. ALL her people had been affected by Boston’s wish, there was no doubt of that now, and as a result, her people were now forced to look as terrible as their worst actions. To see how truly UGLY, they were on the inside. But… Apparently that was not true for all. Episteme was spared, so was she. That gave her a semblance of hope, that her sisterhood could be restored to their former glory. The question was how to achieve that hope.
Walking the path through the Queen’s orchards on her way back, she could see her sisters picking fruit for the morning’s feast. Apples, oranges, pears, and olives. Most of their food was grown here, along with fields nearby for other foods not found when hunting out into the forests. Sitting on ladders or holding baskets of produce, Wonder Woman passed by the farmhands who picked the fruit from the trees to bring to the markets. All of them looked frail and withered, still wearing scarfs or hoods to hide their faces from each other, too ashamed of their own appearance.
Stopping, Diana spotted one farm hand weeping against the tree, hunched close with her knees up to her face and wiping her eyes with the back of her boney hands. That is until another farm hand spotted her and offered an apple. Sitting up to stand and taking the offered fruit, the amazon smiled despite herself and kissed the other woman on the forehead. The two quickly gasped as they shuddered, the apple dropped to the ground as they both began to change. The tell-tale crick and crack of bones could be heard as the two stumbled, catching themselves against the tree to steady their feet. Taking their scarfs off slowly, they were both surprised to find they had been restored. So overjoyed, they embraced each other and laughed out loud… Which drew the attention of the farm mistress.
“DID I SAY YOU COULD STOP? Your rest is at meal, like everyone else!” The only one wearing garb of the guard, the orchard mistress glared back at the two who stood surprised their lapse had garnered her attention.
“Orchard mistress, we were just…”
“No excuses! You shall be censored 2 days fasting for your lapse in… AaaaaaaRGH.”
Shivering and falling into a rigor pose, the woman groaned as her back hunched and her fingers became lanky and thin. Her stance became crooked, as if her bones had become misshapen, and clumps of hair fell from her already balding scalp. Haggard and snapping her attention to the others who looked on her in shock and horror, the woman’s face was a permanent sneer of rage as her pale eyes darted from one shocked sister staring to the next. “WHAT ARE YOU ALL LOOKING AT?! BACK TO WORK.”
“No!”
Turning to face who called her out, the orchard keeper gasped and tried to stand straight as best she could, her grimace faltering at the sight of her princess approaching the elderly looking woman and stand right in front of her.
“Your majesty, w-what brings you out here to my orchard?”
“I had sought to gain wisdom from the Oracles in our current plight, to find a solution abroad that might help, but it would seem the answer is closer to home than I had realised.” Turning to approach the couple sitting, both amazons quickly stood and straightened their garb, lowering their gaze as their princess stood in front of them with a warm smile. Their beauty had been restored, youthful, vibrant, and shying their eyes away from the smiling princess who took their hands in hers and rubbed her thumbs over the back of their hands. “I declare your censor lifted.”
Feeling the orchard keeper bristle at her authority being undermined, Diana turned her attention back to the hunched over woman who remained silent but kept a firm stance.
“Penelope, why are the farm hands held to such a draconian standard?”
Her eyes shifting, the crone didn’t know how to respond. “We… We are warriors your highness, all our deeds must be as precise off the battlefield as on it.”
“Our people are in crisis Penelope, the consequences of our deeds and actions are now being written on our flesh as it would our character.”
“We cannot be faulty in our duties my princess. There can be no excuses. A single lapse in action can be an opening for defeat by an enemy! Out there, the battlefield is Man’s World, the enemy is man itself. But out here, in this orchard, the enemy is TIME! And I will not be defeated by it.”
Narrowing her eyes, Diana stared back at the now emboldened Penelope, the crone clenching her hands tightly as she gave a brave front. Looking to her sisters who had stopped in their picking to watch the interaction, Diana’s resolve softened.
“Everyone, I declare today a holiday, return to your homes, return to your sisters, and when you can, return and finish what you started at your own pace.”
Slightly taken back, the farm hands looked to each other and slowly gathered their things, bringing what they had picked already and gathered them to the carriage brought in to bring their haul back to the city. Bowing as they passed Diana and making their way back into the city, Penelope was beside herself in impotent rage.
“M-my princess, they are tasked to collect the bounty to be brought into the city, we have a quota to finish. I will not fail in my…”
Resting her hands at her sides, Diana shook her head, snapping her attention back at Penelope, who stood shaking with rage in front of her princess. “You are not at war Penelope; you’re just picking apples; I’m trying to save my people. MY enemy is despair, my enemy is grief. And I cannot succeed in MY task if my sisters are punished for trying to save themselves.”
Breathing sharply at the rebuke and trying and failing to retain her composure, Penelope watched as Princess Diana picked up an apple from the nearest basket and handed it to the old woman. “And in the future sister, show some kindness, it costs you nothing, and you may find you might earn a title OTHER than cruel task master amongst our sisterhood.”
Placing the apple in the woman’s hand, Wonder Woman continued her way up the path to the city, joining the farm hands who had gathered around the two who had regained their lost youth and beauty.
Penelope however remained behind, staring down at the glossy green skinned fruit like she had been slapped across the face. Sneering and glaring down at the apple, blood trickled down her lower lip as she crushed the fruit in her frail looking hand and tossed it across the orchard.
*
The walk back to the city was pleasant, many of the farmhands swarmed around their two compatriots as they blushed and hid their faces behind their hands yet unable to keep smiling at all the attention. Entering the city gates, the guards instantly stepped aside and let their princess inside with their people.
Walking down the cobblestone road, she could still see groups of amazons sitting together, some keeping each other company to keep from being consumed by their own despair. Still gnarled and hideous looking. Stepping away from the farmhands who now returned to their homes to contemplate their free time, Diana approached a trio of amazons sitting silently, smiling as she leaned forward to extend a hand in greeting, only to find them quickly stand to their feet and nervously shy away or turn their faces away in shame of themselves.
“Greetings sisters, how fare you?”
Unable to answer, save to bow their heads, the three quickly departed, excusing themselves as they practically scurried away from Diana. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard one of them hiss a rebuke of their princess being perfect. Disheartened, she looked up to find she was at the front steps of the city’s library, a smile returning to her lips as she made her way inside to speak with an old friend.
Crossing through the arched entrance, Diana’s smile beamed as she took in the library’s interior. Rows upon rows of shelves and racks filled to the brim with scrolls and tomes dating back to the island’s beginning and even older still. Making her way deeper inside, Diana breathed in the scents of aged and well-preserved parchment and blinked when she heard movement deeper in the libraries, her smile almost constant as she knew who it was, who she had come to see.
“Alexa? Are you here?”
Her voice echoed across the library’s halls, something that made the footsteps sound more active as she heard whoever it was make their way out from where they were and poke their head from the side of a case of books.
“Shhhh… This is a library my princess! We must keep standards in these harsh times. If you have needed me there is an annoyingly loud gong at the door that can be heard everywhere in the library.”
Laughing with joy, Diana approached her friend as she took a step away from the bookcase to hug the princess. “Alexa my dear friend, how fares you in all this?”
Pulling away, the librarian of Themyscira’s appearance said more than words would. Sparkling blue eyes, heart shaped face with narrow cheeks and plump lips curled into a soft smile, framed with luxurious red hair that cascaded down her shoulders and lower back like the autumn leaves of a willow. Her figure tall and strong with healthy curves that filled the white robes she wore. Resting their hands together, Alexa bowed as the two giggled at the formality.
“You have been restored sister, when did this happen?”
“I have been offering books to those that needed a distraction from what had happened the previous night, if not to take their minds off their current appearance, then at the very least learn something new.” She said, turning to go back to where she was when she was called out and gestured for Diana to follow her. “The moment I offered the first scroll to one of my visitors, I… Felt it, like a shiver run up my skin when stepping out on a cold day. Imagine my surprise when I found my hands restored, more so when I found a mirror to see the rest of me.”
Leading her to her corner of the library, it became obvious with the pile of scrolls on the floor that Diana had caught the woman in reorganising the library. Shaking her head and smiling at that, Diana’s smile slowly faded as she became more candid with the woman.
“I had gone to the oracles for insight on how to resolve the wish, the spell that has afflicted our people. It has become obvious now that compassion and empathy is the course to take in restoring who we are on the inside as well as the outside. But I also have my doubts.”
“Such as?” Alexa asked, crouched on the polished marble floor as she checked the labels of the scrolls she was organising.
“I had always assumed my people and sisters were above petty concepts like jealousy and hatred, that was why I had begged my mother to join the United Nations of the outside world, so that we would not be isolated, and that we could share in our enlightenment. Boston… Has shown me a side of my people I was either blind or ignorant to.”
“Probably to themselves too.” Explained Alexa, placing scrolls on the shelf in the order they were meant to. “We have lived in peace in our paradise for centuries, even millennia. But that peace only existed because nothing changed. Change can bring out some ugly emotions. Personally? I had HOPED that your little endeavour would add new books to the library… I’ve already read every scroll and book we possess from cover to cover thrice over.”
Looking over the grand archways of the library and the rows upon rows of books and scrolls all around her, Diana made a face and sighed. “I had hoped to try...”
Smiling in earnest, the red-haired beauty handed a scroll to Diana. “Here, take this, since the oracles gave you such a cloudy future, maybe a story from the past might offer some insight.”
“Oh?” Seeing the title of the scroll, Diana squinted her eyes in curiosity. “The fable of Eros and Psyche.”
Nodding, Alexa turned and went back to work. “You might like it, at the very least it gives me room to fit some other records in its place.”
“Thank you, sister, may we meet again soon.” Seeing Alexa wave without looking over her shoulder, Diana left the library with her scroll under her arm. Once outside, overhead, the princess could see dark clouds roll in from the east out across the bay, seeing a storm brewing in. holding her gift more tightly in her hand, the princess quickened her pace to return to her palace quarters before the storm would hit.
“Best to pick up the pace. If I am fortunate, the storm will be brief, and I can read in peace.”
*
The storm appeared light at first, a slight drizzle out in the ocean. But that drizzle had become a torrential downpour that left the three in the boat to scramble throwing buckets of rainwater out of the fishing boat.
“SON! CAN YOU SEE THE SHORELINE?” Called out the elder of the three, scooping up another bucket worth of water to toss over the side and keep their raft from sinking. His grandson helping as best he could with his own bucket as he cried out, losing his balance when the boat lurched.
“NO…” The man cried out over the waves and screaming winds. Squinting as water got into his eyes. “ALL I SEE IS BAD WEATHER AND REALLY ANGRY WATERS!”
“DADDY?” called out the young boy, spitting out water after a wave overwhelmed the boat. The engine sputtered and coughed smoke as sea water seeped in. “I’M SCARED!”
Turning to see his boy grab hold of the ladder to the steering deck after the wave overtook the main deck. The man stepped down from the wheel to hoist the young boy up close to keep safe. The wind and waves were so loud, he had to yell out just for his son to hear him.
“IT’S OKAY SON. I’M HERE”
Looking around for something that might lead to safety, ANYTHING, it was looking more and more grim by the minute. The storm had come out of nowhere and had hit hard when his family were out in the water. Things looked bleak, until he spotted something. A spot of green in the distance that wasn’t there before.
“HEY DAD, YOU SEE THAT?”
Looking up and wincing from the pain in his knees and back, the older of the three brought his hand over his eyes to block out the storm winds to see out starboard from their little fishing boat. Seeing what looked like an island out in the distance.
“LAND!”
Getting his hands on the steering wheel, the man at the wheel turned the ship in the direction of the spot of land and pushed the throttle as hard as he could.
Topic: Wonder Woman: Harpies of Themyscira (Read 3015 times)