Dedicated to BatsuSimisu-Chan.
More to Life
Penelope stared down at the infant among the linens. So tiny, so sweet, so innocent.
"Penelope," Chryssipus burst through the doors.
"Shh, I just got her to sleep," she whispered inaudibly.
"Penelope?" Chryssipus asked her at the same level. She snapped out of her reverie and looked down at the linens in her arms. There was no infant. "Penelope!" he said again, with much more urgency.
"What?" she turned to look at him.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." He crossed over to her and immediately caught her cheek up in his hand.
"You pale as a ghost and cold as ice."
"I'm fine, Chryssipus." She composed herself. "What was so urgent?"
"The Emperor," he said as if that would explain everything. Spartans never were known for their loquacity.
"Is he dead?"
"No, he's declared Rome a Christian state."
"Good, no more war." She turned back to her weaving.
"Penelope!" He wrenched her around again. She rubbed her shoulder from where his fingers dug into it. "All those known to still follow the old ways are being rounded up to be executed. Especially those who celebrate the night."
"What's wrong with the night?"
"Apparently, that is when evil reigns."
"If they declare that, the Atrox will reign in the night." She took a rattling breath. "At least we operate in secret." She looked into Chryssipus's mournful eyes. "Tell me one of the girls hasn't been found out."
"The Regulator called Tobius has been appointed to the Emperor's religious council."
Her hands flew to her mouth. "How many?"
"Two. The others should – " Before he could finish his sentence, Gaia and Cornelia fell through the open doorway. Both were sobbing as Penelope and Chryssipus pulled them inside and to their feet. Penelope held them close, while Chryssipus overturned the heavy loom. "You must escape at once. Go to Brittana."
"Brittana? It's full of barbarians."
"It's not full of the new Roman church… not yet." He lowered the girls down the hidden trap door.
"What about you?"
"I will stay and rescue Iulia and Vorena."
"We will wait for you outside the city walls."
"That's not far enough." He cupped her cheek. "I will always return to you, even if I have to find you by moonlight." He didn't wait for a response but picked her up as easily as a doll and gently lowered her into the tunnel.
*
At the time, Penelope had been sure those four months without Chryssipus by her side were the longest of her life.
*
Sweat dripped down Penelope's face as she leaned over the fire to stir her stew. She had come a long way from the pampered Athenian girl she began her life as over a millennium ago. Now she lived as a middle aged widow on the edge of the land of a feudal lord in southern Brittan.
There were those who suspected her of witchcraft. But enough had been saved by the remedies she had gathered in her long life that she lived a mostly peaceful life. The latest Daughters were an interesting group, two from feuding families, one from servitude in the lord's manor and one from among the ladies of the manor.
"Penelope?" She smiled. She was now known as Margret, but one still called her Penelope. And the way her name rolled off his tongue in the most familiar and warm way still brought a smile to her face.
"Chryssipus," she went over to him, still looking as young as ever, and fell into his arms. "What brings so far from the manor? Not to just visit me?" While she stayed among the farming serfs, Chryssipus earned a place among the manor's guard in order to stay close to the Daughters there.
"Why else?" his voice sounded strained, but Penelope ignored it in her happiness to have him with her.
"Here, sit, I'll get you some bread." She bustled around the small kitchen, bringing him a small loaf of bread and a mug of ale.
He accepted it with a smile and hunkered down to eat. She sat down at the only other rickety chair; Chryssipus had made them and the table in his first foray into carpentry. Afterwards, they had both laughed and agreed he should stick to fighting and leave such things for other men.
"Penelope," he said cautiously after washing down half the loaf with a swig of ale. "You know the legends of the Secret Scroll we've heard through the centuries?"
Penelope nodded tersely. The legends had caused many fights between them. Penelope had always felt that if Selene needed them to find the Secret Scroll that she would tell them. Chryssispus had always argued their charge was to destroy the Atrox, and the Secret Scroll was supposed to be able to do that. Penelope thought he just needed the adventure.
"I have the best lead we've had since we heard about it."
"Chryssipus…"
"Penelope," he covered her hand with his own. "I know what I must do."
Tears pricked her eyes. She could feel in her heart; she knew too. "Why must you leave me?" she hadn't wanted to say it, but she did anyway.
"Penelope." He hand cupped her cheek. "I will always return to you, even if I have to find you by moonlight." His thumb brushed away a tear that slipped from her eye.
He rose and she followed him outside, where a horse already saddled for a long journey waited. She watched as he climbed onto the horse and rode away.
Once his figure was gone completely, she rushed into the house, hearing a baby's cry. She searched desperately, wondering where the lost infant was.
She raised her hands to her mouth and bent at the waist instinctively, and only then did she snap back to reality. There was no infant crying. The sobs were her own.
*
When Chryssipus left her that afternoon, she had not expected it to take him eight centuries to return to her.
*
Penelope, now called Maggie Craven, rested her grayed head against the wall of the elevator of the apartment building. She had long since outgrown her daydreams of having her baby in her arms and rushing to the window to see if that indistinct sound she heard was Chryssipus returning to her. When Catty had come to her with the Secret Scroll a year before, Maggie figured out the truth – Chryssipus would not be returning to her; otherwise, why had he not gone to her then?
That night all that was on her mind was whether Jimena would be able to fulfill her destiny and change the future back to how it was meant to be. In only two days' time, she would turn seventeen; Maggie was confident that she would come to the apartment that night and hopefully she would already know.
She entered the apartment building, expecting to rest after a day's work of preparation for Jimena's transformation ceremony. Something was different. The hum of the air had changed. She walked cautiously into the living room.
Sprawled on the couch, asleep, was a very familiar boy. "Chryssipus!"
The boy sat straight up, startled from his sleep. His face stretched into a grin. "Penelope!" He jumped up, still an energetic teenager, and walked towards her with open arms.
"You stupid Spartan!" she flew at him and began beating his chest with more spirit than her frail, old body should have had. He only laughed and let her punch him for a minute, before pinning her arms to her side in a fierce hug.
"I missed you too, Penelope." He pulled away slightly so they could look in each other's eyes. "Didn't think I had lied and wasn't going to return to you?"
"It's been eight hundred years!"
"Yes, well, it's much more difficult in the present to do anything by moonlight, what with the smog and city lights – " She smacked his cheek. "All right, I guess I deserved that one," he said as he rubbed the red area. He looked down at her and smiled. "You look so lovely, Penelope."
"Don't even try, Spartan. I'm an old woman; I look like an old woman."
"I don't see an old woman, just my Penelope, the same way you were so many years ago."
She buried her face in his chest. "You're not here for long are you?"
"No," she could hear the sadness in his voice.
"You have to leave now?"
He didn't nod, only said, "I will always return to you, even if I have to find you by moonlight."
She didn't cry this time, but only watched with a sad smile as he left.
*
When she died without seeing him another time, she thought she never would again.
*
It was night. Full moon. Bright stars.
Penelope lay in the field, looking exactly the same as she did in Athens before her adventure that led her through more than two millennia until her death.
She heard someone approach in the grass and lazily raised her head. A Spartan stood there. Chryssipus.
He looked exactly the same – though far more clean – as when she first saw him. Except now he had a wide smile that he never would have had then.
She slowly stood, waiting for the apparition to disappear, which she decided would be a highly ironic turn of events.
He pointed a finger at the sky. "Moonlight."
She ran to him and fell into his waiting arms. She knew he could never leave her from this place.
Best friends, together for eternity, after so much waiting. She sighed contentedly as they lay down and watched the night sky.