Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 389

Chapter 389 – Plans

Naturally, the marriage between Athena and I wasn’t taking place immediately. If we wanted to do things right, and send the proper message to the people of Earth, then preparations were needed. Not just for the ceremony itself, but also the messaging, and how we would work together in the future.

After all, this wasn’t a marriage of love, but a political marriage. Which is probably why Athena agreed to the proposal so easily. There weren’t going to be any expectations of her moving into my realm, or my going to hers. No one would expect her to share my bed each night, and so on.

The ’why’ of it all was simple. This marriage would have great symbolic value. A union of the old gods and the new, across pantheon and geographic lines? That was something that made others stand up and take notice. And when wise Athena spoke alongside the Dungeon God that never lied, it would send a much more powerful message than either one of us alone.

Aphrodite, however, was not considering such weighty issues. Instead, she was diving headlong into ‘wedding planner’ mode. Her eyes were (literally) sparkling as she pulled out a cell phone, and began looking up catering companies, decorators, and the like. She was speaking, but it sounded as if she was speaking to herself, more than anyone else, since she barely paused to breathe, let alone let anyone else reply, as she started going through different options. She had clearly adapted well to the modern world.

The other goddesses, however, were more restrained. Hera looked at us, and said, “Where should the ceremony take place? It needs to be someplace symbolic, and famous. Somewhere that people will recognize in an instant. More importantly, it needs to be somewhere on Earth, so that the mortals can witness.”

“Really, there is only one place, if you think about it in those terms,” I said. “We will hold the ceremony in Athena’s own city, in the Parthenon. I’m told that it has been fully restored to its ancient glory. There can be no better place on Earth for a joining of our two faiths.”

Athena blinked. “Are you sure? I would have thought you’d want it done at your cathedral in the swamp? Someplace more closely connected to you.”

“No,” I shook my head. “While I am justifiably proud of my cathedral in Swamptown, I will be the first to admit that a dungeon town in the middle of a swamp is not the appropriate place for an event like this. As Hera said, we need something with suitable gravitas, where people cannot help but notice. However, it also needs to be a place at least somewhat connected to at least one of our faiths, yet most of the places that have sufficient majesty are either entertainment venues, government offices, or temples to other gods.

“Having a grand natural setting for the ceremony is another option, of course. If it were Artemis instead of you, then a wilderness setting like a clearing in a forest or a natural amphitheater on a mountainside would be perfect. But neither of us are gods of the wild. Your domain is Wisdom and War, and mine is Pleasure, Domination, and Dungeons. A dungeon is wholly inappropriate for a wedding of this sort, unless it were a city dungeon, or a temple dungeon dedicated to one of us, and it would be disrespectful to hold the wedding upon the remains of a battlefield or the resting place of dead warriors.”

“Not only disrespectful,” Athena nodded, “but it would also send entirely the wrong message. Conducting the ceremony on a battlefield, or in the fields of the fallen, would signal that we were preparing for war, to force the world to unite under our rule. At least, that is how the other gods would see it. They would fight, because many of them do not know how to submit. We would have to force entire pantheons into submission, in order to get them on side, and that is before we start dealing with the governments. It is possible that it would work, but that path does not lead to the best outcomes.

“The Parthenon, however…” she trailed off, and I could see her mind racing through different possibilities and projections. “Yes, that could work. Especially since it has, as you say, been restored to its ancient glory. It took some work to gather materials, and no small amount of what power I still had, since most mortals no longer truly worshipped me, but I was able to do it. The temple is a famous site, a symbol of the ancient world that is recognized even outside of Europe.

“In addition, performing the ceremony there would make clear that I am not submitting to you. Your reputation for domination is well-known, after all, and it would be damaging to my own if people believed that you had ‘conquered’ me, or were turning me into one of your pets. That would send the entirely wrong message to both the mortals and gods who would be watching.”

“Indeed,” I nodded. “And putting it at the Parthenon reinforces my own reputation for treating fairly with people who have done me no wrong. After all, if I didn’t have a reputation like that, Hera and Aphrodite certainly wouldn’t have returned for more than just the one night, and neither you nor Artemis would have come to me seeking a bargain. Which means I would have lost several very enjoyable evenings with the first two, and interesting opportunities with you two.”

Artemis shook her head. “It makes you wonder why more people don’t consider just… not being an asshole to people until they deserve it.”

“Well, that’s easy enough to understand. You need a certain amount of power to truly affect anything. Financial, personal, or political, you need power to make a real, tangible difference in people’s lives. Oh, anyone can smile, and be nice, and generally make people feel better about their lives, or make them more bearable, but actually making some kind of improvement in them? That takes power.

“Unfortunately, before the System, it was rare for good people to get power. Maybe they could get enough to affect one or two lives, maybe more, if they got others to pitch in, but any real change needed power, and you don’t get a great deal of personal, political, or financial power without either being a monster, or inheriting that power from a monster. Now, those monsters might have tried to do some good, but it doesn’t change the fact that they had to stomp on someone to rise up and claim power.

“The System is probably the best thing to ever happen to Earth, honestly. Even with all the death, and all the changes, and all the horrors that have come with it. For the first time since the dawn of civilization, you actually can rise up without putting your fellow beings under your boot, and gain the power needed to make a difference in your life, and the lives of those around you. The old lies about hard work and perseverance meaning anything have turned into reality, and actually have tangible effects in this new world. Every person, from the most lowborn street rat to the billionaires who could buy and sell entire towns with pocket change, now has a way to get stronger, and break free of poverty, if they only have the will to put their life on the line.”

Athena chuckled. “That is surprisingly populist, coming from you.”

“Just simple truth, as I see it. In the world before, there was no point in truly working hard, giving your utmost. It didn’t change anything, didn’t get you more money, more power. Didn’t make your life easier or better. For the vast majority of people, giving it their best just meant they were more worn down at the end of the day, with nothing to show for it, while the people who got the most money and had the most power barely did anything. If every millionaire and billionaire in the pre-System world dropped dead at once, things would keep on rolling. Probably better than they were before. But if the people who actually did the work stopped for more than a week, everything would have fallen apart. That’s the biggest change from the System.”

Hera nodded slowly. “And that view also dovetails nicely with your domain of Dominance. After all, now that people can gain power by their own hands, if they want something, all they have to do is reach out and claim it, yes?”

“True, but it goes deeper than that. Strictly speaking, taking what you wish is more ‘Conquest’ than ‘Domination’. Domination has elements of that, but there is more. Simply taking things is only the start. Once you have control, you need to act in such a way that people believe you deserve that control. Make it so they not only cannot fathom you without that control, but they are incapable of imagining their life without that control, or seeing how they might be better off without you. Making it so that they want your control.”

Athena took a long breath, and nodded. “I think I begin to see the shape of your stratagems. You do not strike as hard or as fast as you can, which causes those foes who ignore the limitations you put in place to face threats far greater than they otherwise would. And you do not care about what implications a tool or weapon might have, you use any and all of them, depending on the situation.

“This extends not just to fights, or the dungeons, but to your interactions with mortals, dungeons, and gods. You move slowly, deliberately, inevitably. When you strike, you do so with enough power and presence that there is no answer, and any retaliation is more costly than simply leaving things be. More importantly, you move in ways where you have a reasonable justification for what you do, hampering any unified resistance against you.”

“All true,” I nodded. “I do not claim to be a master manipulator or silver-tongued salesman. I just arrange things in such a way that people naturally find my way is easier and better than any other path forward. And because I have carefully curated my reputation, even at the expense of not pushing some deals anywhere nearly as far as I could have, and never telling lies, that means that people at least know where they stand with me. Even if they don’t like me, they trust that I will do as I say, and keep to any deals I make. More importantly, they know that I have the power to ensure other parties keep to their side of any deal they make with me.”

“Enough about that boring stuff,” Aphrodite cut in. “We have a place for the wedding, now we need to have a date! This is important. It needs to be sometime special. Something that isn’t directly tied to either one of you. And it needs to be far enough out that we have time to make all the necessary preparations.”

I glanced at Athena. “Fall equinox is in a couple months. That would be a good symbolic time for it, and is far enough out that Aphrodite can have her fun.”

“Yes, I’ll get to have my fun planning the wedding, and then you’ll get to have your fun having Athena.”

Athena sputtered, wild-eyed, at Aphrodite’s words. “Hey! Th-there’s no reason to go talking about stuff like that. This is a union to cement an alliance between the old gods and the new, not something like that!”

“You know you can’t just disappear from the marriage bed when it comes time to consummate the deal, right? We don’t need to see if there’s a repeat of when you did that to Hephaestus. Who knows what would happen if the System decided Gaia got pregnant again, and made a new hero like Erichthonius?”

“Don’t worry, dear,” Hera cut in. “There’s plenty of time to prepare yourself for that. However, if we want to cut closer to a traditional ceremony, then sometime in January might be best. That is when most marriages happened back then, in honor of me, actually.”

“We don’t want it to be too directly tied to our pantheon, though,” Athena said. “The equinox, or the winter solstice, would be the best choices. Both are widely regarded as special days by different faiths, so there is already some acceptance of their being ‘shared’. The winter solstice lies fairly close to the main Christian holiday, so it might cause tension there.”

“I would rather not have my wedding anniversary co-opted like they did to Yule, thank you very much,” I said, dryly. “So, all agreed on the fall equinox?” There were several nods, though the only one that mattered for this was Athena’s. “Excellent. Then Aphrodite can make plans, subject to review from the two of us,” I added pointedly, to keep the Goddess of Love from going completely off the rails, “and we can start spreading the word. Probably want to see which gods and mortals can attend. And maybe some of the dungeons from that area, if there are any who have an avatar they can send.”