PHRETYS

When the original nine ethereal Muse beauties were no longer enough to cover just about every aspect of mankind's artistic endeavors, there came a need for supplementary Muses. Phretys, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, was one of these 2,200, the Muse of Modern Science Fiction. Like her sister, Threnia, she was a member of the Supernatural and Fantastic Wayfarers Association. But she envied her sister in one specific way--in a science fiction novel, she had to explain and rationlized everything, but in a fantasy novel, people will believe just about anything.

Phretys was tall and willowy, with very patrician features. She had long, wavy blonde hair and pale gray eyes, and spoke with a husky voice. She wore a stola (a long, white garment with a purple border, the sort of thing only a rich woman would wear), wore sandals, and carried a personal handbag. Her favorite pasttime activities included taking a nice, hot, soaky bath, having a little chablis and smoking a cigarette.

Just before the collapse of magic in 966 GUE when the Autoexec betrayed the Association, Phretys was sent by Savitri to relay information to Glorian of the Knowledge on the shore of the Flathead Ocean at the western edge of the Shadowlands (her sister Threnia would normally have been assigned the task but was busy elsewhere). She urged him to guard the Golden Dipped Switch once he had acquired it and to deliver it directly to the Control Character only. She also revealed to him that the Autoexec's only weakness was absolute darkness, and that the quest did not end with the recovery of the Switch. For this was his quest.

SOURCE(S): The Zork Chronicles