" Calm yourself! There is nothing here for you to fear." Lina tore her eyes from the body that was decidedly not hers. A few feet from where she lay were two women. The one who had spoken was tal , thin and had gray hair that was pul ed back into a severe knot. She stood beside the silent one. The silent one sat on - Lina blinked rapidly, her mind not wanting to believe what her eyes reported - an enormous throne. She was draped in creamcolored linen. Her blond hair was wrapped around her head in a series of complicated braids, and an intricate crown of delicately carved golden - Lina blinked again, but the image remained the same - golden ears of corn rested regal y atop her head. In one hand she held a long scepter, in the other was a gilded goblet. The seated woman was beautiful, but her beauty was fierce and serious, what history described as a "handsome" woman. She was watching Lina intently.
"Welcome to my realm, Carolina Francesca Santoro, daughter of man." Questions warred in Lina's brain and she struggled to shift through the teeming confusion and the lingering sense of physical displacement. She was breathing in short, panicked gulps. Lina glanced down. Through the silky shift she was wearing she could clearly see the mauve-colored nipples of her perfectly shaped breasts thrusting against the thin material barrier. Even twenty years ago her breasts had never looked like those. Those breasts looked like they belonged on the pages of an airbrushed magazine. Real flesh couldn't be that perfect.
"Oh, God! I think I'm going to throw up," Lina said. Then she pressed her hand against her mouth. That wasn't her voice. Where was the soft mixture of Oklahoma twang and her grandmother's Italian influence? "What has happened to me?" she gasped.
"As Eirene has said, there is nothing here for you to fear." The queenly woman's voice was deep and comforting. Lina clung to it and wil ed herself to slow her breathing. Puking wouldn't help things. As her hyperventilation ceased, her mind began working again, and the woman's words registered.
"You said your 'realm.' What did you mean? Where am I?"
Demeter took her time before answering the human. Already she mourned the absence of her daughter's soul. She wanted nothing so much as to cal Persephone back and know her child was close to her, protected and safe. But that was the problem. She had kept her daughter too protected. It was time Demeter al owed, or in this case, insisted, that she grow. And the Goddess had made a decision; she was bound by her word - even if it had only been given to herself.
"My realm is never-ending - from the smal est garden plot to the vastness of the great fields as they grow ready for the harvest, there you wil find what is mine. As to where you are..." She hesitated, considering. "Is Olympus a name you recognize?"
In short, jerky movements Lina nodded. "Yes. In mythology it's where the gods lived."
"Why is it that mortal daughters always say gods and leave out goddesses?" The woman who stood beside the throne asked the other.
"That I cannot answer." She shrugged her broad shoulders. "Mortals do not always make sense, especial y mortals from Forgotten Earth."
"Wait, stop," Lina brushed the thick hair out of her face, forcing herself to ignore the fact that it was the wrong color, length and texture to be hers. "I need to know where I am, who you are, and what is going on."
In unison the women's heads turned to her.
"Mortal, do you not know to whom you speak?" The gray-haired woman whose name was Eirene bowed her head in the queen's direction. When Lina didn't answer, she frowned, but continued speaking. "You are in the presence of Demeter, Great Goddess of the Harvest." Demeter did not smile, but her blue eyes softened. "How could you not know me? Was it not my assistance you invoked?"
Dumbfounded, Lina felt her jaw unhinge. It had to be a dream - a horrible, amazing, realistic dream. When she woke up she'd have to remember not to eat whatever she'd eaten before she'd gone to bed. Or maybe it was hormones. Again. She real y needed to have a long talk with her mom.
"Carolina Francesca Santoro," Demeter said, sounding disturbingly like her grandmother. "You are not dreaming, nor do you hal ucinate."
"Can you read my mind?"
"I am a goddess, and your expression is quite transparent." She gestured at a spot in front of her. Instantly a gilded chair materialized. "Come closer. We have much about which we must speak, and our time is limited."
Unsteadily, Lina stood. Her steps should have been halting and awkward, but her body seemed to have a rhythm of its own. On delicate feet she stepped forward and then sank gracefully into the offered chair.
Demeter gestured, speaking softly to Eirene. "She needs wine." Lina watched, wide-eyed, as the gray-haired Eirene nodded, turned and seemed to disappear into a fold in the air behind her. Within two breaths, she returned, carrying a goblet that matched the one Demeter held, and a crystal bottle of golden liquid. First Eirene refreshed the Goddess's cup, then she fil ed the goblet and brought it to Lina.
The hammered metal was cold in her hand and the wine was icy and incredibly delicious. Its taste fil ed her, instantly soothing her harried senses.
"It's wine, yet it's not. It's like drinking sunshine," Lina whispered.
"It is ambrosia. Drink deeply. It wil quiet the trembling within you," Demeter said. Lina obeyed the Goddess, letting the cold liquid flash through her body. As she drank she could feel the last of the sense of displacement vanish, leaving her mind clear and surprisingly calm. Lina met Demeter's steady gaze.
"I'm in Olympus."
Demeter nodded.
Lina glanced down at the stranger's body. "But this isn't me."
"No, you inhabit my daughter's body," Demeter said simply.
Lina took another long drink of the ambrosia. Her daughter's body? Her mind flipped through dusty mental files of leftover useless knowledge from school. Demeter's daughter? Who was she?
A name came to her.
"Persephone?" Lina asked. There was something else that came with the name, some vague remembrance of a myth, but the Goddess's quick response gave Lina little time to ponder the elusive thought.
"Yes. My daughter is the Goddess Persephone." Demeter nodded solemnly.
"If I'm here" - Lina pointed at herself - "then where is she?" But the chil of dread that shivered through her body answered the question before she heard the goddess's voice form the words.
"You are she, and she has become you."
"Why?" She croaked the question.
"You invoked my aid. My daughter is fulfil ing that request."
"Your daughter? But what does your daughter trading places with me have to do with saving my bakery?" Total y confused, Lina struggled to stay calm.
"Foolish child!" Eirene snapped. "Enough of your questions. There is no better way to breathe new life into your insignificant little bakery than for it to be blessed by the personification of Spring." Lina looked sharply at Eirene. She was confused and out of her element, but she was certainly not going to tolerate that woman's offensive words.
"First of al , I'm not a child. Don't cal me one." Eirene's eyes widened at Lina's words. "Second, it might be an 'insignificant little bakery' to you, but you're talking about my life's work, and the livelihood of my employees. I have every right to ask questions and to expect them to be answered."
"How dare you..." Eirene sputtered, but Demeter's upheld hand silenced her.
"Enough." Though the Goddess's tone was commanding, her expression was open and thoughtful as she studied Lina. "Your points are valid."
Eirene huffed and Demeter tilted her head in her friend's direction.
"Carolina Francesca is only demonstrating her maturity and sense of responsibility." Eirene's mouth tightened into a thin line, but she didn't speak.
"Lina," Lina corrected, drawing the Goddess's attention back to her. "My friends cal me Lina." Demeter's brows rose.
"I would be honored if you would cal me Lina, too." She said, holding her breath. Had she overstepped herself?
"Then I shal ," Demeter said.
"And you shal cal her Great Goddess - "
"Or Demeter," the Goddess interrupted, flashing an amused look at her friend.
"Demeter," Lina said, "please explain to me why Persephone and I have exchanged places."
"I heard your invocation. It moved me. No one from your world has cal ed to me with such earnest hope in many ages. I chose to answer you."
With her free hand, Lina rubbed her forehead. "But why exchange your daughter and me? Couldn't you have just, I don't know, zapped some new life into my business?" Demeter's lips almost smiled. "I did. I gave it my daughter."
"I don't mean any disrespect, Demeter, but what does your daughter know about the baking business?"
"My daughter has the wisdom of a goddess." Demeter's face hardened and her tone brought gooseflesh to Lina's arms. "And she is the embodiment of Spring. She wil honor your bakery by breathing the freshness of new life into it." The Goddess's expression softened. "Have no fear, Lina. You have my word that your business wil thrive and prosper. In six months the money you owe the tax col ectors wil be repaid threefold."
"Six months?" Lina felt like she'd been hit in the stomach. "She's going to take my place for six months? What am I supposed to do while she is being me?"
Demeter appeared to consider the question. "There is a smal task you could perform for me. For a woman of your maturity and experience it should be easily accomplished." Demeter's eyes captured Lina's gaze as she mirrored the final words of her invocation. "Let us just say that you are returning my favor."
Lina had offered the deal. The Goddess had accepted. And Lina the Businesswoman would keep her word.
She nodded stiffly. "Okay. What can I do for you?"