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Once, the storm god loved a mortal woman and refused to let her die. But she did not like to dwell with the gods, so she spent most of her time on earth, drifting on the breeze provided by her goddaughter Periphys to whoever had the most need of her.
As the Queen's senior attendant, Phresine slept in the attendant's chamber closest to the Queen's own; she heard the faintest creak of a door that should have been shut, and rose immediately. Peering into the Queen's bedroom, she recognized the breeze dancing through the windows and billowing the curtains. "Periphys."
The breeze flitted through the door and coalesced in Phresine's chamber. "You should be asleep, Godmother," Periphys whispered.
"You should be quieter, then," Phresine retorted. "Why are you here opening the Queen's door?"
"Alyta asked me to come. You know the Thief of Eddis?"
Phresine acknowledged, "I know he has crept in before. It upsets the Queen. Will you blow a boy off a building, then? That seems cold even for the gods."
Periphys said, "His god would not allow it. I came to unlatch the window and ease his passage."
"I thought Alyta was looking after the Queen."
"So, so. It is for your Queen's happiness."
"Letting an enemy into her bedroom?!"
"Wait, Godmother. Watch." Periphys dispersed, and the breeze slipped back into the Queen's bedroom. Phresine heard the click of the door's latch.
"I thought I would find you here, Godmother."
The Queen was growing more disturbed by the Thief of Eddis' visits. Phresine, also disturbed and thus unable to sleep, had stepped out into the garden for some fresh air. "What message are you delivering?" She asked Moira.
Moira pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders. "Maybe I came to visit you."
"I know better. You are so busy delivering the gods' messages, you don't have time to visit your own mother."
Moira laughed. "She always complains about that. But as it happens, I came to tell Attolia how to catch a Thief."
Phresine frowned. "Your mother was here a while ago, helping the Thief get in. She said it would make the Queen happy. Surely that takes more than catching the Thief?"
"I am only the messenger," Moira said. "But I came to tell you that Attolia may need you more than ever in the days ahead."
"I was not planning on going anywhere."
"Does Alyta tell you her plans?"
At home gusting through her mountain ravines, Periphys looked up and found Moira seated on a boulder. "Hello to you too, daughter. If you needed to know her plans, she would tell you."
Moira stood and accepted her mother's embrace. "All the same. I grow increasingly curious about what is going to happen to the Queen of Attolia."
Periphys blew dismissively through the needles of a pine tree. "Alyta always seeks her children's happiness."
"Maybe Hephestia has a different plan, then. She is sending me to tell the Mede where to find the Eddisians." Moira shook her head. "I am sure no one could be happy with the Mede ambassador."
"I do not think Hephestia wants the Mede to be successful," Periphys mused. "Wait and watch."
Moira sighed. "I always do. Sometimes I wish I could trade places with one of the fates, and weave mortals' histories instead of only recording them."
"You are too close to mortals for that."
"I suppose that is why it is tempting."
In a disused solarium in the palace of Attolia, Moira, Periphys, and Alyta watched the motionless form of the Thief of Eddis before his altar. "It's better he doesn't know," Alyta said softly.
Periphys agreed. "He'll give up sooner or later."
"Will he?" Moira asked. "He is a Thief."
They continued to watch.
At last Moira said, "I can at least tell him he cannot have the answer."
"He is a Thief," Periphys echoed in warning.
Moira entered the room anyway. When the Thief screamed, Periphys and Alyta exchanged a glance. Alyta sighed sadly and said, "I suppose we must give him an answer." She nodded to her sister, and Periphys called upon their father's power and threw it into her wind, slamming it into the solarium windows and shattering them. Alyta entered the room.
"I don't think it was necessary to break all the windows," Moira said dryly to her mother.
Standing just outside Attolia's throne room, Phresine heard her say, "Give him back to me, and I will build your altar..." She didn't wait to hear the rest, but went to find Xanthe and tell her to suggest to the Queen of Eddis that it might be time to try the solarium doors again.
Much later, Phresine paced the empty, ruined solarium and wondered what her goddaughters had told the Thief. "You should be careful, Godmother," Moira said from behind her. "People will begin to suspect."
Phresine turned. "No one suspects an old woman."
"An old woman who tells stories no one else knows?"
"There is always someone who knows. A grandmother in a remote village, usually."
"And how often are you the grandmother?" Moira asked, with gentle laughter.
Once, the storm god loved a mortal woman and refused to let her die. Though she did not like to dwell with the gods, some said she was one of them all the same; the goddess of near-forgotten stories, like her own.