Concerned about those recurring dreams you’ve been having recently? The ones in which your teeth fall out after you realize you’re not wearing pants right before you’re scheduled to host a symposium on nuclear physics?
Don’t stress too much about those. Everybody has them.
Now, about those dreams in which Nemesis appears out of a black void and warns you of an “imbalance in your heart?” Well, you’re on your own there. We have no idea what she’s talking about. But those dreams sound pretty stressful and scary. We really hope you can figure them out!
Maybe it will help to read this brief rundown of who exactly the Greek goddess of balance is, what she’s been up to, and where she’s headed next.
Balancing Act
Nemesis has many titles, some of which may seem contradictory on the surface. Goddess of balance, goddess of retribution, goddess of revenge, goddess of whips and leather jackets (Okay, we made up that last one, but we can only assume she’d wholeheartedly embrace it.)
The second thing you need to know: she takes her roles very seriously. While the other Greek gods spend most of their time relaxing while delegating tasks to more minor gods, Nemesis is always eager to take matters into her own hands. If she senses even the smallest imbalance in the world, she will drop everything to try to fix it. When we first met her in The Mark of Athena, she was seen editing fortune cookies by hand to make them more balanced. Imagine taking your job, or any job that seriously. If she’s that passionate about the small stuff, you can only imagine how she feels about the big stuff.
Cool Whip
In case Nemesis’s relentless dedication to balance and retribution isn’t scary enough, you could instead choose to cower before her immense power and weaponry. Want to hear about her ability to control the destinies of not only mortals but also her fellow gods and goddesses? How about the power to inflict anyone, and we mean anyone, with a horrible curse that will last a lifetime? Just ask Narcissus how that’s working out for him.
We’ve also heard rumors that Nemesis’s signature whip is potent enough to ensnare even the mightiest of primordial beings. For a brief time, anyway. We’re not sure Nemesis is strong enough to go toe-to-toe against someone like Gaea for very long, but we can at least confirm she wouldn’t hesitate to try.
Dream Warrior
Did we forget to mention that Nemesis is also a child of Nyx? This provides a little more context for another ability worth mentioning: the power to blend into the darkness and manipulate shadows. Nemesis’s family ties may also help explain why she’s been showing up in certain people’s dreams lately. Is it possible that Nemesis has paired up with a certain dream-weaving sibling to issue ominous warnings to demigods in need of inner balance?
Your guess is as good as ours. All we know is that if Nemesis is indeed working alongside her family, Tartarus is likely freezing over as we speak.
Nemesisters and Brothers
For all her talk of balance and fairness, Nemesis doesn’t always practice what she preaches. Especially when it comes to her family. A hypocritical Greek god? Yeah, yeah, we know. We’re as shocked as you are. But maybe there’s a method to Nemesis’s madness. She might think one is supposed to love and loathe their family in equal measure.
Just look at the complicated relationship she has with her demigod son, Ethan Nakamura, for example. She removed the kid’s eye, for crying out loud! And look how well that turned out in the end.
If Nemesis has decided to spend some quality time with her siblings down in Tartarus, things must be getting pretty serious. But the real question is: how long can an alliance with Nemesis realistically last?
Only until the scales of justice become unbalanced once again . . . or she gets distracted by reading too many negative reviews of her favorite movies. Those internet trolls have no idea of the reckoning they unwittingly unleashed with their 2-star ratings.
Want to see more of the goddess of vengeance and retribution? Be sure to catch Nemesis’s next big appearance in The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure, on sale 5/2!