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"As a matter of fact, yes. I've got a gift for you," Minos said, opening the bottom drawer of his desk and pulling out a small black urn. Every thought in Ariadne's head shut down as he offered it to her.
"Lia. I should've given you these a long time ago. I was waiting for the right moment when I knew that I could trust you explicitly."
"I thought you would've disposed of these," Ariadne said, trying to keep the tremble from her voice.
There was a long wall in the Temple gardens that his best assassins got put to rest. Like the majority of the acolytes, Lia hadn't even made it to graduation.
"I was going to, but I knew how much she meant to you. Take them and honor her shade as you see fit."
Ariadne took the cold jar and gripped it tightly. "Thank you,pater. Is there anything else you require of me?"
Minos looked her over in a non-fatherly manner. "Maybe stop by the kitchens and eat something. I worry about what you're putting into your body out there."
"That sounds like a great idea. I haven't eaten breakfast this morning."
Ariadne had reached for the door when he cleared his throat. "One other thing, Spindle. If you interfere with my training again, like you did today, I'll break more than the girl's arm. Understand?"
"Yes,pater. I'm sorry," Ariadne said and left his office before she climbed over the desk and shoved her fist down his throat.
Ariadne was still fuming by the time she made it back to her apartment in the Hellas District.
With the anger came the inevitable hopelessness that no matter how much money she saved or how hard she fought, Minos was never going to let her go.
Giving her Lia's ashes was just another move in their silent game of wills.
"Don't forget your mail, Aria," the ancient landlady demanded from her desk in the foyer.
"Thanks, Mrs. Contos," Ariadne said politely. It was so rare for her to get any mail apart from the marketing flyers of the local shops that she had a habit of not looking in her box for weeks. She made a show of unlocking the box to appease the still watching Mrs. Contos, and she was surprised to find a yellow package inside of it.
Ariadne stilled when she noticed it was addressed in her full birth name, knowledge she thought only she and Minos had.
It would be impossible for anyone to identify her from fingerprints or DNA left at crime scenes. Minos paid good money to ensure that his priestesses didn't exist in any police or medical databases.
Ariadne had burned her fingerprints off years ago, back when she believed all of Minos's bullshit and wanted to impress him with her devotion.
Ariadne placed Lia's ashes on the mantel of the broken fireplace, turned on her coffee pot, and stared at the package on her kitchen counter. If someone knew who she was and what she had done, then the envelope could contain anthrax or any other number of nasties sent for revenge.
"Don't be ridiculous," Ariadne huffed and tore open the package and tipped out its contents. Inside was a smartphone with a pin code written on a scrap of paper.
"What the…" Ariadne tapped in the code just as the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"We are the Pithos, and we have a job for you, Spindle," a digital voice replied, and Ariadne's safe, anonymous world fell out from beneath her.
2.
Ariadne took three deep breaths before she demanded, "If you know so much about me, you know I don't work freelance or take private contracts."
"Minos Karros likes to keep a tight grip on his pretty assassins. Tell me, Spindle, how's that working out for you?"
"I don't know what you are talking about," Ariadne said, even as her pulse raced.
"We are offering you a contract. Your reward will be five million drachmae and a way to keep out from under Minos’s dirty thumb forever."
"Why?" It sounded too good to be true, and Ariadne was too smart to bite that bait.
"Pithos wants to get rid of scum like Minos that seek to corrupt Greece."
