Part 1

The Set-up: After a full year being exiled from Attica, both Zaniah and Zubene were finally legally allowed back into the region. Over the year, they had managed to grow their crop business in Boeotia back to how it was before they were accused in Athens. Now, the sisters could go back home whenever they wanted to. If they wanted to.

Call to Action: One day, Zubene heard rumours that some traders and merchants were being forced to leave Athens recently and this got her curious. Zaniah was happy keeping the business in Boeotia, but Zubene felt that she wanted to go back to Athens to check how things are at the market. After a bit of discussion between the two, Zaniah agreed to move back to Athens if Zubene assessed that everything was fine and the market still strong. While Zubene is away, Zaniah would stay to continue business until she receives a message bird giving her the go ahead.

Call Refusal: The next day, Zubene sets off on her own with a horse, some weighing scales and supplies towards Athens. While she told her sister that all she’ll be doing is checking on the market, in reality she was also investigating the rumours about merchants being forced to leave. Having been forced out herself, Zubene had a feeling that the situation was too familiar and suspected that something unjust was happening in Athens. Whatever it was, she wanted to get to the bottom of it.

No Return: After a day of travelling, Zubene arrived in Athens. It had not changed much in the year that she was away, so it wasn’t difficult for her to navigate around. Checking out the marketplace, she saw that it was thriving just as she had remembered it. She noticed that there were not many traders selling crops with the exception of one large stall that most people were buying from. To her surprise, she recognised the vendor of that crop stall as the same man who accused her and her sister’s stall and had them exiled. It was then that Zubene realised, both her and her sister might really have been framed last year. The man may have wanted to monopolised the crop market. She decided that she would bring the man to justice.

1st Struggle: From a distance, she watched the con-man to see how he runs his business. There were a couple of other people helping him at the stall and eventually someone took over as sales and the man left his stall to wonder around the marketplace. Zubene followed him from a distance to see where he would go and found that he would check out the other crop traders in the market, sometimes buying a thing or two from them. Then the con-man went back to his stall with his purchase. The entire time, Zubene watched and grew very suspicious, but couldn’t find any good evidence against him.

Commitment: The next day, Zubene went back to watching the con-man and saw him openly chastise a stall’s product and endorsing his product as better to the customers. He was so loud about it, he even managed to get a crowd forming and watching him. The man didn’t care and continued to tell the customer and the crowd that this stall’s products were no good, and that his products were fresher and more beautiful. Zubene heard a secret conversation in the crowd that the con-man had been acting this way for the last couple of months and have managed to bankrupt many crop businesses by taking away their customers. Seeing this Zubene finally saw a way to get back at the con-man. That night, she sent a message bird to Zaniah to let her know the market was fine, and that she should come back to Athens as soon as she got the message.

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Part 2

2nd Struggle: It would take Zaniah a couple of days to bring all their stocks from Boeotia back to Athens, so Zubene took this time to prepare what she needed to bring justice to the con-man. Giving an offering to Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty, she took a pomegranate out from her supplies and asked the Goddess to make the fruit the most beautiful red, freshest and tastiest pomegranate in all of Greece. Amused, the Goddess accepted the offering and blessed the presented fruit to be as Zubene wished. Now she was ready for the next stage.

Crisis: The next day, Zubene disguised herself and approached the con-man at his stall and asked him if the rumours were true that his stall sold the best crops in Athens. The man obviously answered positive, so she proceeded to show him the beautiful red pomegranate from her bag that she told him she got from her garden. She said loudly that she was looking for more pomegranate just like the one in her hand, so the man proceeded to weigh each of his to match her pomegranate to find ones of similar weight. Around seven matched the weight of her fruit, but she complained that none of the seven looked as beautiful as the one she had, commenting out loud that it seemed the rumours about his stall were false.

Climax: A crowd started to form at their commotion and the con-man started to grow nervous. He said that his fruits may not look as beautiful as hers, but they were definitely as fresh or even fresher. So Zubene cut open her pomegranate to show him how fresh it was inside. She said that she will buy any of his that were as fresh or even fresher than her one if he could prove it. So the man proceeded to cut open all seven of the chosen fruits and still none of them looked as fresh or fresher as the one she had. This time even the crowd were snickering, realising that the man’s stall didn’t live up to his claim, his crop were neither beautiful or fresh. The man was left humiliated.

Aftermath: After the commotion Zubene caused, a new rumour spread and the con-man’s stall dropped drastically in sales. Lasting for the next couple of days until eventually the man gave up and left the Athenian marketplace for good. Zubene was pleased that she brought justice to the con-man, and not long later, Zaniah arrived in Athens with all their stocks. The sisters’ business from then on went smoothly and prospered well. One day, Zeus appeared before the sisters saying that he had watched them over come various obstacles for their business and was very impressed by their passion and intelligence. The God decided to make each sisters a celestial star; Zaniah with her crops become the personification of Virgo and Zubene with her weighing scales become the personification of Libra. Both sisters got to still be together however, because they were placed near each other in the sky.