The Mortal Bride of Apollo

Irene's stepsister arranges a swap on the day of the wedding, so the bride who goes to the poor wandering bard is Irene and the good match goes to the stepsister. The bard has no property and no family name, and Irene's relatives treat the marriage as proof that she was always worthless. What none of them know is that the man under the travelling clothes is Apollo, the Light God, walking among mortals in a borrowed human shape. He watches how the household speaks to her, how the errands are handed down, how far they push before she stops answering back. Athens' noble houses join in once they hear about the match, and Irene is worn down until she has nothing left to hold on to. That is the point at which the god stops pretending. He turns his holy wrath on the nobles who broke her, and the families that ran the city are ruined. Afterwards he raises the mortal woman he married to the throne of the Light Queen, and the people who once made her kneel have to stand in her court.