Water streamed from the brass faucet. Near-boiling water overflowed from the finely embossed rim of the brass bathtub, splashing onto the mosaic tile floor. The white gown that had been hastily tossed onto the floor was soaked by the overflowing water, turning hazy and translucent. Athena hugged her knees and curled up, letting the water rise over her chest. She closed her eyes and let out a long breath. The trained muscles in her back and her weary mind gradually relaxed under the hot water. This temperature could not harm her at all; a temperature beyond what a household electric water heater could produce was precisely what she wanted. The Emperor drew his fingers from beneath the water. The power of the Outer Dimensions wrapped around his palm turned into flickering sparks and vanished. He had briefly served as the water heater; summoning a bathtub of boiling water was no trouble at all.
Athena lay against the edge of the bathtub with a smile on her face, her half-open eyes filled with dense steam.
"Take it." She stretched out a wet, steaming arm still dripping with water and held a damp sponge before the Emperor in an almost overbearing manner. "I provide you with prophecies, and you serve me. Isn't that perfectly reasonable?"
Expressionless, the Emperor took the sponge, dipped it into the bathtub to soak up the scalding water, then pressed it to Athena's shoulder. Hot water squeezed from the sponge and ran down her smooth, fair back, disappearing beneath the milky-white body faintly visible under the surface. Since the start of his education, Athena had been his benchmark for classical art and the aesthetic beauty of Ancient Greece. Her body best explained what beauty was. It was a supernatural beauty. Her flesh and bones had been created from