Hecate felt it, the boiling of Madness oozing through the lines of a boy's prayer, striking at her core with equal ferocity to Alexandros' own prayer spell. Stunned, she manifested before the source, seeing a young man shivering at the foot of one of her Crossroad statues. Dian, she sensed his name was, was not using words to pray, but pain, and an offering of wine and his own blood... and she knew why. She could taste it, and it broke her heart.

  'Damn you, Dionysius, to think you would allow someone to become a Maenad in the middle of her pregnancy! This boy bears his mother's madness and drive to drink, he is lost in it... but as this power is primal, chaotic, no mere healing can remove it... even I cannot, not without going against the Laws of Olympus...' Her eyes widened, and she smirked. 'But in the Olympian Rites, one can earn a boon... and have the cursed erased! I can mute the curse... but he must serve me to balance the power... but how?'

  Then she laughed, remembering as she remembered who the boy's Father was, and thus who his divine ancestors were... allowing her to discover a simple, yet profoundly effective plan. And so, with the Lover of the Mother, she manifested before the boy startling him to standing.

  "Lady Hecate, you heard me?" He spoke, his oddly deep for twelve, and very raspy from his tears. He was looking at her with the desperation of a mad man, a starving, thirsty Tantalus eager for just the thing he was craving. "Please, I'll do anything, give anything, just free from from this madness!"

  Her arms wrapped around him, pulling him to her chest in her best attempt to soothe him. "Shh, shh... it is alright, or it will be... but, my love, I may be the most skilled in the mystic arts among the gods, but the powers of the Olympians requires that another of their status undoes your magic." She stopped his next wave of tears with her fingers. "Do not despair, for I have a solution for your woes... in return for serving me, acting as a Defender, a protector to my newest mortal Champion, I will use my powers to mute your madness.

  Then, when you are both old enough, you can stand for me in the Olympian Rites, earning a boon to free you from that darkness. I cannot and will not force this on you, only ask that you -"

  "YES!" The boy screamed, looking at her with wild, tearful eyes. "It's so heavy, this angry curse in my blood... it hurts me, I have to fight, day and night to stop it... even a second of relief would be everything."

  Stolen story; please report.

  "I will need your blood." She said, lifting his wounded hands, cut by a dagger to manifest this prayer spell. 'So desperate for relief, he would go so far...' And then she leaned down, kissing kissing him twice on each palm. The wounds sizzled shut, but his blood was on her lips. Leaning down further, she placed a gentle, maternal kiss on his lips, breathing in her own sacred power, woven with a mother's love. 'May this boon soothe the rage torrents within, my love.'

  In an instant, as his body drank in her power, sending it throughout his every cell, the young Demigods let out a long, pained sigh as finally he seemed to be at peace. She noticed, almost immediately, the costs of her boon.

  "I can't feel my powers, not as well as before." The boy muttered, smiling. "They were,... the madness was the source of my powers, wasn't it?"

  "That would be true, you had inherited not only Dionysius's madness and powers, but that which your mother had as a maenad... in many ways, you were never really a demigod... now that I consider it, you are closer to a Daimon. Sort of like a Nymph, only instead of being tied to a physical object you are tied to a concept... which, due to your bloodline, seems to be the powers of your father. which in a way means you are literally drawing on his very powers as a god, he is the literal source of your potency. Madness, Vegetation, Alcohol... burdens no child should have to endure, and for that I am most sorry." Sighing, she rubbed her brow, feeling the strain of the spell she cast. It wasn't complex magic, but muting someone as potent as Dionysius' power was no simple feat, even for someone of her level. Even more so given that it was drawing directly from his domain.

  Brushing off his tears, the boy looked at her, with eyes too mature for a child. "So... who am I defending?

  "His name is Alexandros, a mortal boy with a big heart, bigger dreams, and remarkable mind. I am sure you will get along famously, but there are a few things we must discuss first... how do you feel about learning to control your powers under a Goddess level Sorceress as you work to protect my Champion?"

  "I will do anything I need to, you have earned my loyalty... my Lady." And he bowed, not in worship, but the deepest appreciation she had ever felt before.

  "Very well... now, shall we be off?"

  And so they were, vanishing in a swirl of blue fire to the home of Medea... though, after explaining everything to Medea, who placed the boy to rest in his own room, Hecate started to wonder just how much of all of this suddenly finding people that wanted to fix themselves or others was chance...

  Or Fate?

  She really hoped it wasn't Fate, she had long since grown tired of such machinations ruining and control so many lives... gods and mortals alike.