Maid Athena

Athena’s origins have always remained a mystery. Born as the only nestling of a family of mythical snow owls in a remote and desolate land. Known for her quiet, watchful nature, she was raised destined to overlook a hidden underground library, untouched by human society for many centuries. Athena was the sole protector of this place from the harshness of the outside world. She had learnt all that she knew from these ancient tomes, from undiscovered spells to the evil nature of humans. She grew distrusting of mankind despite never meeting one face to face. Even when she had to explore the world in her human facade, she would avoid interacting with them. Who needed companionship when she had all the literature she could dream of… Or so Athena thought, as the years went by the owl found herself feeling… Lonely? Every time she would feel such emotions, she would distract herself by exploring the land for new archives to fill her library.

During her daily routine of making her rounds around her rows of books in her library, she noticed a single tome out of place. Odd, considering she was the sole inhabitant of the collection. As she approached it, the book suddenly flung itself off the shelf, breaking the owl out of her usual calm demeanour. Cautiously she crept towards it, reaching a single hand out to touch the oddity. Upon the first initial contact, she felt an odd sensation crawl into her skin as the book flew open revealing a shining page, so bright that the librarian had to look away momentarily. She had read this somewhere before; An Ancient Magic that would reveal portals to other collections to those the tome deemed worthy. Before she could back away to formulate a plan, a hand appeared out of the shining page, grabbing onto hers pulling her into wherever that portal led to.

The next moment, Athena was on the floor with one hand being held by the figure who had pulled her into this new environment. As her eyes adjusted to the light, a chirpy voice broke out.

“Ah! You finally answered! I’ve been waiting for you” Athena tilted her head in confusion, and before she could ask what the figure ment, the voice spoke again, “To help me clean this room!”

The owl looked around, realising she was in another library… one very messy library. Books were everywhere, she was even sitting upon some. Gasping as she scuttled to stand up, making sure to avoid further damaging any books.

“You see, me and Echo were fighting and, well, one of my spells flew into our library… This was the result and if I don’t clean up soon I won’t be able to get any studying done!”

The owl looked at the figure in mint in disbelief, she had conjured ancient magic… just for a cleaner? Humans were truly troublesome she thought, before taking a deeper look around the room. The shelves were full of literature she had never seen before. Picking a nearby book, she flicked through to discover that this room contained the stories and memories of all who passed through the gates of this mansion past and present. Athena had never seen such archives full of the world’s wonders before. If she could hold such records, imagine the knowledge she could gain. The human (?) seemed at least not malicious towards her, with a refined sigh she agreed with the one condition of being allowed to go back and forth into her own library to store some of the overflowing books, taking the young mage under her wing to aid her to organise this library. 

Thus began Athena’s life in the MOE mansion as the head librarian. Despite her initial reluctance to interact with her troublesome humans, she secretly longs for and harbours a desire to form more long lasting human connections which is a side she keeps concealed.