<center>(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"Our final story of the [[day]]..."'']</center><center><h1>The Labyrinth</h1>
Minos, son of Zeus, competes for the throne of [[Crete]]...<center>Minos thought he deserved the throne of Crete more than his brothers, and so he prayed to the gods for a boon. And Poseidon provided, sending down a snow white bull for Minos -- with the agreement that Minos would sacrifice the bull in Poseidon's name later.
With the bull, Minos won the throne, but afterwards, he looked at the bull and thought to himself, "Well... it would be a shame to kill a bull so cool..."
Instead, he tried to trick Poseidon by sacrificing another, inferior bull.
Unsurprisingly, Poseidon was not fooled. Angered at Minos' betrayal, he cursed Minos' wife to fall in love with the white bull, and...
Um...
Sometime later, the Minotaur was born!
It was a hostile little monster who existed solely to cause harm unto others, but what differentiated it from other children was the fact that it was part bull.
They named him "Asterius."
Faced with the birth of a monster, Minos did the only reasonable thing, and forced Daedalus the inventor to construct a massive labyrinth near the Cretan palace. He then locked the Minotaur into the labyrinth -- as well as Daedalus and his son, Icarus, to ensure no one could ever learn the labyrinth's layout.
Minos wiped his hands of the affair. [[Problem solved!]]Of course, as was the nature of those old Greeks, Minos later went to war with Athens, and after he'd won he thought, "Well... I have this nice labyrinth with a monster pre-built into it..."
So he demanded that every seven years, Athens must send seven young boys and girls to be fed into the labyrinth.
Athens, of course, wasn't all that happy about this, but they complied. Once, twice -- but the third time this sacrifice was demanded, Prince Theseus of Athens volunteered to put a stop to this.
So he replaced one of the boys and promised to his father that if he was successful, he would sail back to Athens, and replace the ship's black sail with a white one.
So Theseus and the other sacrifices arrived at Crete.
And by sheer happenstance, the daughter of Minos, [[Ariadne]], caught sight of Theseus and fell in love with him.
So Ariadne secretly sought out Theseus, to aid him, and she gave him a ball of thread with which he could retrace his steps through the labyrinth, and slipped a hidden sword near the entrance.
And so Theseus entered the labyrinth and found the sword, and, with thread trailing behind him, set off to confront the [[Minotaur]]."That's you!"
''"That's me."''
"Nice!"
//"Wow. You've made it big. Featured in one of the stories."//
''"I'm glad you're all star-struck. I'm not particularly impressed, though. The original Ariadne betrayed her family for a man she only just... saw?"''
//"Just the once, even."//
"I mean..."
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"Yes, well, people just fell in love at first sight back then."'']
''"That sounds absolutely awful."''
"That-- Yeah, wait, that's not gonna happen to us, is it?"
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"I... I've never worried about your love lives. It's up to you, I suppose. Choose not to fall in love at first sight. If you want?"'']
"Oh, phew."
''"That's a relief."''
//"That's our sister's namesake, though. Are you saying she's not a role model to follow?"//
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"Well, perhaps I'm saying you should let me //finish the story// before //[[interrupting|Problem solved!]],// hm, Ritualist?!"'']Theseus ventured deeper into the labyrinth, able to avoid getting lost because of the thread trailing behind him, and eventually he found the Minotaur.
Theseus and the Minotaur did battle! It was tremendous.
And Theseus won. It was very impressive.
Theseus then used the thread to lead the rest of the Athenians out of the labyrinth, and, boy, Minos was not happy about that!
So Theseus stole the ship he'd been sailed in on, and gathered the Athenians onto it, as well as Ariadne and her sister Phaedra, and sailed off.
They set sail back towards Athens, and on the way they took a stop to rest at the island of Naxos.
But in his dreams, Theseus was met with the goddess Athena, who told him to leave Ariadne on the island.
And Theseus thought, "Oh dang, that sucks, I guess," and when dawn came he roused literally everyone else and set sail, leaving Ariadne on the island.
And in the midst of this whole dilemma, Theseus forgot to switch out the sails of the boat. And when Theseus' father saw the boat returning with black sails, he figured this meant that Theseus had died, and so Theseus' father cast himself into the sea.
Nice job, [[Theseus]].''"Hm. I don't care for Theseus."''
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"No?"'']
''"Not one bit. And not because of any bias for my namesake."''
"Well, I'm biased! What a jerk."
//"Even if you ignore the tasteful betrayal factor, the general aura of incompetence throughout this whole affair is worthy of enough scorn."//
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"Now, now, kids, settle down. Weaver, let me wager a guess -- you read ahead on this myth too, didn't you?"'']
''"Well, yes. It's my origin and all."''
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"Yes, well, as the two of us are both aware, Theseus does not prove himself to be any more impressive."'']
//"Oh?"//
''"Yes, he marries Ariadne's -- my? -- sister instead, that doesn't work out, he kills his son... He has a whole thing about kidnapping women. It's not great."''
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"No. But! This tale isn't about //Theseus// and his //many// failures, children. He's no longer relevant! Let's [[finish.]]"'']Ariadne sat on the beach of Naxos and stared as the boat slowly shrank, eventually disappearing over the horizon.
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"Damn, dude,"''] Dionysus said, having appeared beside her. (text-color:"#b363eb")[''"That sucks. I've got some...?"'']
Dionysus offered Ariadne a goblet of wine. She accepted it with numb fingers.
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"...I've got this whole party going on, if you want to do something other than... be trapped on my deserted island?"'']
Ariadne took a long chug of wine and nodded.
[[Dionysus]] offered her a hand and took her away.(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"And then later they, ah, married."'']
''"..."''
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"...I mean, I'm- I'm not going to do that to you. That would- that would be weird. And anyway we're Bacchants so our roles don't have to be static. I'm a unique take on Bacchus! You're a unique take on Ariadne! It's wonderful!"'']
''"...Um, yes. Very good to know. Good to have that established."''
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"Yes, hm... look, there's only so many prominent women in Greek myth, especially tied to Dionysus, so really..."'']
''"Okay, Boss, that's fine. You don't need to... justify yourself to me?"''
(text-color:"#b363eb")[''"Wait, you're rigt. I don't! Look, kids, that was the tale. The last of the set, in fact, because you're ready -- you're ready to head out into that big wide world! Your first job is due soon. I'll set the stage for that priest, alright? But you'll have to pull your own weight after that.
You'd best be [[prepared!]]"'']There was an odd absence in the Grove, as a presence that had been familiar to them all their lives was suddenly gone.
Comus all but bounced on his feet. "Our first job," he said, grinning brightly. He would finally be allowed to delve into the growing stockpile of wine he'd accrued from the Maenads.
Iakkhos, on the other hand, scowled at the reminder. "It's not a good idea," he said sourly.
Comus frowned at him. "C'mon, bro," he said. "Dad came up with it himself."
"So? We don't need to reveal ourselves. We //shouldn't// reveal ourselves until we have to."
Comus rolled his eyes, wary of wading into an argument already familiar. But unusually, their sister didn't chime in with her usual opinion (she shared Iakkhos' concerns, but ultimately believed in Bacchus' skill, the same as Comus.)
Instead, she just looked thoughtful.
"Still caught on your namesake?" Iakkhos asked.
"I am," Ariadne admitted.
"...Still not impressed?" Iakkhos asked.
Ariadne considered. "...No."
Comus raised an eyebrow at the two of them. "...I get it," he said, to Iakkhos' apparent surprise. "She's the original Thread-Weaver, but... uh, she really did turn on her dad over a guy."
"A mediocre guy," Iakkhos added.
"Medicore?" Comus said. "Terrible!"
The two of them smiled at each other, but Ariadne still didn't jump in. Instead, she looked troubled.
"You've misunderstood me," she said slowly. "I mentioned she betrayed family earlier, but I wasn't thinking of Minos. I was thinking of Asterius."
Comus blinked in surprise, while Iakkhos raised an eyebrow. "The Minotaur?" he asked.
"The Boss didn't really bring it up," Ariadne said, "but the two of them shared a mother, didn't they? It's admittedly kind of weird, but..."
"Well," Comus said, "sure, but the Minotaur //was// a monster."
"He was part human and part animal, how absolutely terrifying," Ariadne said drily.
Comus frowned. "It's different," he defended. "The Minotaur, like, ate people."
Iakkhos waved a dismissive hand. "Some humans from Athens, who cares?" he said, which clearly didn't sit well with Comus and wasn't really the argument Ariadne was making.
"Look, nevermind," she said. "The important part is the ending, really. Let's focus on the future. We've got a turncoat to catch."