Alex gulped and stared at her beckoning feet. He never understood what a foot fetish was all about but was getting a glimpse of that world at that moment.

"Well? Are you going to make me wait the rest of the day?" Persephone said as she gently kicked her frontmost leg with feigned impatience.

Alex got up and stiffly approached her not remembering what to do first. He kneeled down looking at her feet with his hands to either side as if waiting to grab a fly.

"Fill this bowl up with fresh water and soak the cloth first." Persephone prompted. She was starting to find his naivety offputting.

When Alex was finally ready to start washing her feet, he took a steadying breath and forcefully grabbed them with both hands as if he was trying to catch a jumping salmon.

Persephone yelped in surprise making the sentries outside pause and look at each other with raised eyebrows. They silently decided they would make a close pass by the room to check on the situation.

"Be more gentle." She chided.

"S-sorry, it's my first time doing this." Alex said unable to keep his voice from cracking.

This made Persephone laugh at him and her laughing at Alex set off a nervous laugh of his own as he started mindlessly rubbing her feet.

"You're too uptight. Relax or I'll never be able to enjoy this. You're fortunate. If you were doing this with any other girl for your first time, you might have already hurt her."

The tips of Alex's ears became a deeper shade of red. He was too distracted to mind the innuendo but caught onto the ridicule.

"Take a moment and relax. I'm not going anywhere. When you're ready, lightly wipe my feet with the cloth and try not to tickle me." She finished with a teasing tone to bring the lightheartedness of before back.

Alex steadied his mind and began gently washing her feet in earnest. Persephone enjoyed the footbath for a few moments before the urge to tease him returned.

As Alex ran the cloth across the bottom of her foot, Persephone let out a seductive gasp. Alex jerked just a bit but continued. The devious smile returned to Persephone's face. She started making amorous noises as Alex worked and even jerked her legs a tiny bit for effect.

"Gently..." She said in a weak voice as if pleading for mercy.

"I know! I am... I mean I'm trying my best." Alex was cracking again. His hands were shaking almost uncontrollably.

Persephone made a breathy gasp again

"You're getting much better at this." She said with a weak voice designed to tempt any man.

It was at that moment that the sentries walked by. They didn't look into the room but used their sense of hearing out of a sense of propriety in order not to directly violate the privacy of the two.

After they passed the room and were out of earshot they stopped to confer with one another.

"Sounds like she's really enjoying that new slave boy."

"Can't believe she brought him to Zeus's place to do it."

"She can't very well bring him to her mother's house and do it there. Can you imagine how Demeter would react? We don't need that trouble."

"You're right, let's just pretend we didn't hear anything"

The two sentries nod at one another and resume their rounds.

Alex found that it was very different to be the one to take the lead in touching the opposite gender in such an intimate way. Even though it was just giving a girl a foot bath it left him shaking. He could only console himself that the next time such an opportunity arose, he'd be ready.

"When do I know when I'm done?" Alex asked. He was trying very hard to control the shaking of his hands and the trembling of his fingers.

"I'll let you know." Persephone was leaning back enjoying the experience but had one eye trained on Alex so she could see his reactions.

"I've washed your feet a lot longer than you washed mine. Aren't I done yet?"

"I'm a lot better than you and you obviously need the practice." She groaned in pleasure again. "Now keep going till I tell you to stop."

She was clearly taking this too far. Alex was already getting used to the situation and was plotting on whether it was worth the risk to start tickling her while her guard was down. Persephone sensed his intentions from the momentary pause of his hands and leaned forward.

"You know, you're nothing like your namesake." She told him.

"My namesake?"

"Alexander the Great. I knew him for a time. It was hard to like him." She bit her lip trying to find the right words. "He never seemed happy here. Like he was trapped in a party he wanted nothing to do with."

Alex kept his silence as he gently rubbed her feet and waited for her to continue.

"Zeus was very fond of him. I'm sure he wanted to adopt Alexander as his son. Together with Athena he probably would've been his favorite. He gave him immortality you know. Just like with Virgil." She bobbed her head before she corrected herself. "He didn't drop Alexander, but he did take him from a party and left a dying clone behind. Zeus had received a prophecy that if he didn't grab Alexander soon, the gods of Egypt would snatch him away. But contrary to what uncle wanted, Alexander didn't stay. He left saying that he'd forge a new legend among the gods. That was many many years ago now. I'd almost forgotten..."

Persephone seemed lost in thought and no longer reacted to Alex's ministrations as she had before. Alex looked up into her face and slowed his hands.

"Am I done now?"

Persephone snapped back to reality and looked down at his pleading eyes.

"No, they're not clean enough yet." She was going to say more but then an idea danced through her mind. Her face became completely serious and she leaned further forward to grab Alex's forearms. She waited until he looked her in the eyes.

"I want you to be a good companion to Zeus."

There was an awkward silence before she continued.

"You don't have to act like a son, but at least try to be his friend. Try to keep him company. Try not to let him drink alone."

Alex could see she was serious but he couldn't tell why. Just when he was going to ask her to explain her reasons, Zeus rounded the corner and stopped at the sight of Alex still handling Persephone's feet with a serious look on his face.

Both Alex and Persephone were caught off guard and shocked into silence. Alex felt like he was caught red-handed doing something naughty with Zeus's daughter. As for Persephone, she had no idea how much Zeus had heard just now. All three of them stared across the room. Persephone and Alex stared at Zeus and Zeus stared at the two of them.

Zeus's eyes traveled from Alex's hands holding Persephone's feet to Persephone's eyes and then to Alex's fearful face. Zeus cracked a pleased smile.

"Excellent! You can wash my feet next Alex." Zeus said and then plopped himself onto the bench next to Persephone to wait his turn.

Alex shared a quick look with Persephone and finished washing and drying her feet. Persephone then took the used water and dumped it into the houseplant near the entrance and drew clean water for Alex to use.

This time Alex wasn't as skittish though he was put off at having to clean another man's feet for them. His hands were unsteady but he carried out his task without issue or complaint.

"It's been ages since I last had someone clean my feet for me. I forgot how refreshing this felt." Zeus said.

Persephone was enjoying the sight for some reason.

"Ah... That was very nice." Zeus said with obvious pleasure as Alex was drying him.

All the excitement that Alex felt because of Persephone was now dead. Why did he have to touch an old man's grubby feet?

"Alright, now that we're all washed up, let's get something to eat." The old man said with a refreshed tone.

Zeus stood up and walked up the steps and into the rest of the house. Persephone caught Alex's eyes and winked with a smile before she followed after. Alex stood there holding the bowl of water over the plant as he watched her leave. He had such mixed feelings at that moment.

***

Elsewhere a city burned. Its inhabitants fled in panic as monsters rampaged along the streets. The citizens didn't understand what was happening. The city was peaceful one moment and the next, entire sections of the city's immense wall had exploded inward.

They had received no warning of an imminent attack and the wall was imbued with enough power to withstand a mountain crashing into it without crumbling.

The very air started shaking and a loud boom from the sky made every living creature stop in its tracks to look up. With loud sonorous trumpets drowning out all other sound and nearly stopping all thoughts in the minds of the audience, a figure emerged from nothingness to span the entire sky.

"HEAR ME AND TAKE HEED! YOUR OLD GODS HAVE FALLEN! WE ARE YOUR NEW MASTERS! ALL WILL SUBMIT TO OUR WILL!"

Nobody was left standing and only the very strongest were still on their knees by the time the figure stopped talking. It didn't matter how preposterous the words would normally have sounded. When they came from such an overwhelming messenger there was nobody that could take them lightly.

The mighty figure clapped and damaged towers gave way from the concussive shockwave. It was as if all living creatures and all the mountains and oceans were pressed under an immense weight for that moment. Beings that were powerful in magic felt that their very souls had been violated. They struggled in vain against the branding inflicted upon them.

Many of the most powerful court mages fell into madness. The weakest willed kings and nobles committed suicide as monsters ravaged their kingdoms before their eyes.

The whole world fell into chaos and rivers of blood swelled the banks of ponds and lakes. Even the clouds became scarlet and heavy with sanguine vapors.

The conquering gods did nothing to stop the slaughter. These gods had no need to show mercy to mere mortals. Their only interest was in harvesting fresh souls, selecting the most powerful and reincarnating the weakest for breeding to create more new souls.

Eventually, the planet would be nothing more than a well-regulated soul farm. Some inhabitants would be able to live relatively freely. They'd be left to grow and prosper, allowed to grow strong and then faced with invasions of monsters to challenge them. Adversity would make some stronger and kill the weakest to then be recycled.

The strongest would be indoctrinated and recruited into the armies of their new gods or kept in an afterlife as domesticated batteries.

This brutal exploitation was nothing new for these gods. They had been put in charge of new acquisitions numerous times before. As powerful as they seemed, they were mere administrators. The peons of peons, not even worthy to stand near the vanguard on the real battlefields.

Of their former pantheons, they were the lucky gods. The brethren that fought back and refused to submit were torn to pieces. Their powers ripped from their god bodies and taken up by their conquerors. The souls of the fallen gods were left in shredded tatters to be scooped up and used as eternal batteries.

There was nothing these administrative gods could do. Nothing was worth the risks. They had to accept their lot or perish. Seen in this way, there was little difference between them and their mortal charges. At least some of the mortals were allowed to believe they were free.