VII.IV Uplifting Spirits

The girl he was with.. Athena? Seriously? How did that even relate to stuff like Midasean politics?

"I know very little about her circumstances, but I do know that she'll need all the help she can get." Huh?

"I-I don't understand.." Wasn't he doing that already? "Why her?"

"I don't know everything, sir Eremes... I wish I did." The bartender's eyes softened as they gazed over the novelist's sleeping form, a faint smile adorning her face as Athena quietly dozed off in her alcohol-induced slumber. "I remember the first time she ever came here.. alone, shaking, red-eyed, still wearing her college uniform... Her face showing so much fear and paranoia it was heartbreaking." The bartender recounted, opening another bottle of vodka as she continued. "She kept going on about the 'infernal voices in her head'.. or at least that's what my husband told me she kept screaming in Greek about."

Empty drink forgotten, Eremes let his curiosity lead him. "When was this?" All this time...

"If I recall cor