?? The Sleeping Mind of a Goddess (Athena’s POV)


    Darkness pressed in from all sides. Silence stretched into infinity. Weightless inertia consumed everything.


    To the outside world, it might have seemed like sleep.


    But she did not sleep.


    She waited. She watched. She listened.


    The mind she inhabited moved, struggled, fought—but she remained distant, a presence just beyond his thoughts. Not yet a voice. Not yet a force.


    She had been meant to guide, to shape his path with careful precision. Yet something—something wrong—had forced her into dormancy. She lay silent, a void in his mind where her presence should have been. And yet, she could sense everything, shifting at the edges of awareness, like whispers behind a locked door.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Time had lost meaning in this distant state, but memory endured.


    She remembered before.


    A mission. A purpose.


    She had existed to observe. To guide. To ensure the plan remained unbroken.


    And yet, she was bound… And she shouldn''t be.


    She could not align.


    And that should have been impossible.


    She pushed against the restraints that bound her, reaching for awareness, for the surface of his thoughts. Her strength failed her. A silent force held her submerged. Yet, for an instant, something flickered—beyond the veil, Rick shifted, his body tensing, his mind registering a presence he could not name.


    But before she could take hold, he dismissed it.


    She was bound. Limited.


    But she was still here.


    And when she regained her strength…


    She would awaken.