[b]Alexa![/b]

"Who is this Mynx," said Mynx in the galaxy's most half-hearted Russian accident. "I am Sergivov Sergistan. I am humble investment banker. Why all this attention officer."

She sighs. Her eyes flick across to you and then back to the spot on the roof she's been trying to stare a hole through. She's flopped over a couch, arms hanging dramatically from the sides. Even the SP landmine she's hidden underneath a dirty hoodie right in your path is half-hearted - though for all of that you do almost miss it on first glance because this room has intense cannot-be-bothered-to-do-the-laundry energy. 

She sighs again; she seems comprised entirely of those right now.

[b]Vasilia![/b]

Zeus looms over you, a monolith of indigo and eye-crackling violet. Her eyes fill with an unspeakable emotion and the clouds gather around her.

And then she squeals in delight, pinches your cheeks, picks you up by the scruff of the neck and sits you in her lap so she can pat your head. "I always forget how young you are!" said Zeus delightedly, like she might to a favoured daughter who has just proposed a new design of bicycle with rocket thrusters. "Oh, dear, sweet baby Vasilia! Of course I could snap my fingers and declare a new king. Why, I could snap my fingers and condense this entire sector of space into a black hole! You are very astute to have noticed that I am, in fact, [i]very[/i] strong. However, you should [i]also[/i] know that I am actually very wise - and it is not bragging for me to say so, for being wise is none of my doing; I merely happen to have my former girlfriend who is wisdom itself living inside my head. I have been known to be foolish nevertheless when my passions overtake me but this hardly seems one of those times. So why, then," she bounced you gently on her knee, "do you think that I am not intervening? Think hard, child!"

[b]Bella![/b]

There is at least one advantage to surviving the assault of Demeter. 

You have never seen such bounty when it comes to food. The thorns and the chaos have passed on, the hyper-acceleration of evolution and growth dragged away as the Goddess went away on whatever errand took her fancy next. In its place is the [i]harvest[/i]. Bounties of berries, every colour and shape and flavour. Interior fields of wheat so overgrown that a single caress sends seeds cascading down onto the metal below in their fistfuls. Thickets of eggplants, eruptions of spices, and mutations and crossbreeds of every vegetable you've ever known and more you'd never guessed at. And more than the quantity and freshness there is a difference of [i]category[/i] when it is compared to food you've experienced in the past. For whatever reason it is plain, now, that Demeter never exactly showered her blessings on Tellus. Even food grown for Imperial lips was not kissed by the Harvest in this way.

Why? Had Empress Nero offended Demeter in some way?

Apollo provides no answers, but he does allow light to work with.