Chapter Three: It Will Give You Peace...

The cliffs towered high over the ship's deck and such was there height that they cast the entire of Drevus' vessel into shade where it bobbed at anchor.

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea," Ithius was saying as Callisto tied a bedroll close about a collection of basic travel provisions. Nearby, the crew were busy readying a small landing raft that was normally kept beneath waxed sheets in the ship's hold, tying ropes to metal pinions mounted in its sides, and hefting it on strong shoulders to lower it over the side and onto the waiting waves below.

"If you've got a better option as to how prevent the Delphi city watch stringing me up by my toenails when I go waltzing into their fair city, then believe me, I'm all ears," Callisto replied, straightening and slinging the pack across her shoulder as she did so.

At her request, Drevus had changed the ship's heading so that it would reach the coast somewhere to the east of Delphi. It was a region she knew reasonably well, a quiet stretch of beach that ran right up to the base of cliffs at the eastern edge of the black sand beach. She would be able to lie low here for a time, or at least as long as it took Ithius and the others to continue on with Themistocles and Adrasteia, sailing west up the coast to the Delphi port. One there they would hopefully be able to convince the city's authorities of the dangers they were facing and the need to accept Callisto as an ally.

"You know," Ithius was saying, "This might go easier if you came with us. If they could see you were sincere they might be more willing to reason..." He trailed off when she cocked an eyebrow at him.

"That's probably wishful thinking, isn't it?" he sighed.

"Oh, I'd say so, yes," Callisto said mockingly, then sighed too. "Look, Ithius, the last time I was here, the city guard locked me away in a granite walled cube with no windows and that smelled like the rear end of dysentery riddled goat. Then, just to make extra certain I wouldn't get away, they strapped me into the world's most uncomfortable chair and fed me gruel off the end of a four foot long pole pushed through bars in my cell's only door. They were terrified of me, and they were right to be. After all, when I finally managed to escape, I killed every jailer in that dungeon, and half the prisoners too." Ithius shifted uncomfortably at that last part, but Callisto carried on regardless. "I wasn't a nice person then, and to be honest, not much has changed in the intervening years. If they catch me again they might only do the same to me, and that in itself would be bad enough, but then who's to say they might not decide the hell with it and just have me executed on the spot? Are you willing to take that chance, because I'm most definitely not. This is the only way. I get off here and you guys go on ahead. Maybe without me around you can talk them into seeing the sense of letting me help against what's marching their way. If I was with you though..." she paused and shrugged. "Let's just say tempers might run hot, and I'd rather not die at the hands of an angry mob just when I'm getting the hang of this 'being alive' thing again."

Ithius pinched the bridge of his nose as if he could feel a headache coming on.

"Alright," he said. "You win. But at least let me come with you. If the Delphians hate you as much as you say they do-"

"They do."

"-then I can't imagine that the country around here will be that much safer for you." Ithius finished, ignoring her interruption. "You'll need someone with you to watch your back out there."

Callisto gave him a mocking smile.

"Why Ithius, how sweet of you. Much as I appreciate the gesture however, your concern is quite misplaced. The Delphi city guard might just be able to take me..." she paused to think about that for a moment. "...if there were twenty of them and I had my hands tied behind my back, but the local dirt farmers in the surrounding countryside, well, let's just say I don't rate their chances anywhere near as high. I think I'll be able to manage just fine on my own."

"And besides, she's already got someone to watch her back."

Callisto frowned suddenly at the sound of the familiar voice as Athelis stepped up to join them, a similar pack to her own hanging at his side.

"What's this now?" she said, nodding toward his pack and having a sinking feeling that she already knew the answer.

"I'm coming with you," was his blunt reply.

Callisto just scowled at him.

"I don't seem to recall inviting you."

"That's because you didn't." Athelis took a step closer to her. "Doesn't change the fact that you need me with you."

Callisto shook her head at him.

"All evidence to the contrary."

Athelis' jaw muscles flexed, and he straightened slightly.

"I grew up in this country. You just terrorised it. I know the lay of the land better than you."

"I know it as well as I need to."

Athelis puffed out his chest slightly. "You can't stop me coming along," he said firmly.

Callisto shot him a dangerous look then turned to Ithius and smiled sweetly.

"Ithius my dear, would you give us a moment. I need to knock some sense into our morose friend here."

Ithius glanced between the two of them, then gave a slight shrug.

"You two want to have at it, then who am I to interfere?" He nodded back over his shoulder to where some of his people – the last surviving Helots – were beginning to muster on the deck in preparation of disembarking later in the day. "If you need me I'll be right over there."

Callisto did not even bother to reply, instead rounding on Athelis sharply, fire blazing behind her eyes. The former mercenary wilted under her glare, but only slightly.

"You don't want me along," he said trying to head off her fury. "I get that, but it's not your choice. If I decide to follow you, there's nothing you can do."

"Is that right?" Callisto said, her voice taking on a dangerous edge. "I could just smash both your knee caps and leave you here whimpering in agony. Do you think that would do the trick?"

The line of Athelis' mouth thinned but he stood his ground.

"Okay," he said. "Fine. You don't need me." He paused. "But I do need you."

Callisto's frown turned quizzical.

"Why?"

"You know why," Athelis replied hotly. "You and me, we want the same things."

Callisto rubbed a finger under nose and sniffed dismissively.

"Really? This again?" She turned her back on him and started off toward the edge of the ship where the crew were beginning to lower the landing raft over the side. "You don't know what it is you want, Athelis. You think you've lost everything, that you have nothing left, but I see a sister sitting over there who suggests otherwise."

"She doesn't understand," Athelis said darkly. "None of them do except you."

Callisto paused, glancing back at him over her shoulder as she did so. Who was she, really, to tell him he was wrong? His pain was real, the same as hers. Did the degree of it matter? She felt her teeth starting to grind together. Of course it did! He had lost a lot, it was true, and she could hardly blame him for wanting to seek revenge, but at the same time, he was kidding himself if he honestly thought he had nothing else left to lose and the fact that he did not seem to realise it was what infuriated her most about him.

"Fine," she snapped. "You can come, but enough with the brooding vengeance seeker act already. There's only room for one person to be pulling that around here, and that person is me, got it?"

Athelis gave her a grim half smile.

"Got it," he said, hefting his pack again.

"Good," Callisto nodded. "Now get yourself down onto the raft. It's already later in the day than I care for, and I want to be casting off soon."

Athelis returned her nod, then began to scramble down the coarse netting the crew had cast over the side to provide access to the raft. Callisto crossed to where she had left her sword earlier, propped against the side of the ship and scooped it up, securing it her across her back beside her pack before turning to follow Athelis down the netting.

"You didn't tell me why," came Ithius' voice from behind her.

Callisto frowned and turned to face him. He was standing with his arms folded while Athelis' sister, Adrasteia, was a pace or two back from him. Neither of them looked particularly happy.

"Huh?" she said. "What are you blathering about? I'm losing daylight here and I really don't have time to be playing twenty questions."

"The Delphians," Ithius said, taking a step toward her. "You told me they locked you up before. You didn't tell me why."

"Oh," Callisto said, "That." She shrugged. "It was years ago now. I'm sure the Oracle barely even remembers."

"You tried to kill her!"

"Oh come on! It's not like it was anything personal."

Ithius clapped a hand to his head and groaned.

"Yes, well, I'm sure that particular argument will make all the difference, won't it. It'll certainly help tip the scales when I'm trying to persuade the city guard to not to have you executed you on sight!"

Callisto glanced past him at Adrasteia.

"This is her doing isn't it," she sneered. "She told you about this."

"What does it matter who told me?"

"Oh, it matters to me," Callisto hissed, eyeing Adrasteia angrily. "Answer the question. Was it her who told you?"

"Of course it was me who told him!" Adrasteia spat back at her before Ithius could answer. "And I was right to! After all, it's the truth, isn't it?"

Callisto smiled a smile that never even went near her eyes.

"It is indeed," she said. "I do have to wonder, though, why you felt the need to? Perhaps a little jealous that your long lost brother would rather step off this boat with me than sail home with you?"

"So he is going with you then?" Adrasteia said quietly. From the way her face twisted at the comment, Callisto knew she had just hit the nail square on the head.

"That he is," Callisto nodded, her grin widening. "You can come too if you like deary. You could keep an eye on me if you did. You know, just go on staring at me the way you have been doing these past few days."

Adrasteia's jaw tensed in the same way her brother's did when he grew angry, and Callisto's grin widened.

"What's the matter my sweet? Did you really think I hadn't noticed?"

"Don't call me that."

Callisto frowned.

"Call you what?"

"'My sweet'" Adrasteia replied. "Don't call me it. Or 'deary' or 'darling' or any other patronising pet name you think to throw my way."

"My, my," Callisto said, folding her arms across her chest and tilting her head slightly. "You are a sparky one." she glanced over at Ithius. "I do love to see a little fire every now and then."

She could see Adrasteia's jaw grinding hard.

"Just don't hurt him," the younger woman said, straining hard to keep her voice even. "I won't stand for it."

"You don't have a choice," Callisto fired back as she returned her full attention to her "Remember who it is you're talking to little girl. Do you really think that if I wanted to hurt your dear brother there is a single thing you could do to stop me?"

Adrasteia swallowed and shook her head.

"No," she said flatly.

"Then it's a good job for you that I don't want him hurt, isn't it."

"Not really," Adrasteia said. "You see, even when you say something like that, I don't think it matters, because I don't think you can help yourself."

Callisto frowned at her.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"You hurt people," Adrasteia said with a shrug as if she were stating something that was common knowledge. "It's just what you do, isn't it? You find a chink in their armour and exploit it. The saddest part is, I don't think you know how to stop yourself. You've been doing it so long now that it's almost instinctive. Can you honestly tell me that that's not the truth?"

This time it was Callisto's turn to grind her teeth together in impotent outrage.

"Alright," Ithius said, stepping between them. "That's enough, the pair of you. Adrasteia, go help with getting us ready to disembark. I don't want any delays once we dock at Delphi."

Adrasteia shot Callisto one last look that she could not quite read, then nodded to Ithius before making her way off across the deck again. Ithius himself took a deep breath, then turned to face Callisto square on.

"You know she's just trying to turn you against me, right?" Callisto said. "She doesn't like me. Hasn't done since she first laid eyes on me."

Ithius cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Because you're just such a warm and welcoming presence?" he said, and Callisto speared him with an impatient glare.

"You know what I mean," she snapped.

Ithius sighed and nodded.

"I do," he said. "Listen, Callisto, Adrasteia's young and confused. She's only ever heard the stories about you. You tried to kill the woman she serves, and wreaked havoc across the lands she calls home. She - along with half of Greece for that matter - thought you were dead and then suddenly, out of nowhere, you're rescuing her from rampaging Spartans and she ends up caught on a ship with you. Topping it all off, her prodigal brother is here as well, and trailing around after you like some kind of disciple. Can you blame her for being a little defensive? A little prickly?"

"Yes," Callisto said without hesitation. "Quite easily actually."

Ithius gave a snort of dry amusement before giving a rueful shake of his head.

"I swear you'll be the death of me," he said. "Look, the reason she told me what she did isn't important. You and I, we have an understanding. I think we can help each other, but that means we need to trust each other too. I shouldn't have had to hear about the Oracle from her first. You should have come to me with it already."

Callisto continued to glare at him angrily for a moment longer before giving dismissive sniff and looking away across the deck at nothing in particular.

"Alright," she said. "Point taken." She looked back at him and cocked her head slightly. "Will there be anything else?"

"Just be careful out there."

Callisto flashed him a sharp-toothed grin.

"Remind me, when exactly have I not been?" she asked innocently.

Ithius did not bother to answer. Instead, he just shook his head again, and set off across the deck in the same direction as Adrasteia.

The boat trip to shore was passed mainly in silence. Despite his eagerness to join up with her on the ship, now that they were alone together, Athelis seemed more than a little uncomfortable. They were not really alone of course. Two of Drevus' oarsmen had agreed to row the raft into shore, and than back to the ship again, but they were sitting further back and were of little note to Callisto.

She spent most of the short haul thinking about what Adrasteia had said to her. Was she right? Was she really only capable of causing pain and suffering wherever she went? Had she lived with it so long that it was really all she had left to offer to the world? Not for the first time, she wondered what had made Zeus and Hades choose her for this mission of theirs. She understood the practicality of the choice, but she did not understand why they even thought that she was remotely capable of what they were asking of her. They had promised her Elysium, but was that deal real, or just some carrot to dangle in front of her? Did they already know she could never achieve the task they had set her to? If that was the case, why choose her at all? Was she just some misdirection designed to deceive Cronus and his Followers while Zeus put some other plan into action? She would not put it past Zeus to have masterminded something like that. She had only met him twice before he had sent her back into the world, but she had been able to tell from even those two short meetings that his title as 'King of the Gods' was well deserved.

She frowned as a vague sensation of unease teased the back of her mind. Were those really the only two times she had met him; down in the Underworld before she had been returned to the world of the living? Her memories told her yes, but she had a feeling they were not entirely reliable. The Pneuma had left her with... gaps. Was that even the best way to think of it? Whatever she chose to call it, the truth was that what had taken place while she was under the Pneuma's influence was not clear. There were images and sensations she could vaguely recall, but every time she tried to cling to them, they evaporated like smoke slipping between her fingers. She could remember Perdicus, dead again and by her hand, Xena's grinning desiccated corpse, and her village filled with faceless corpses while another her mocked her and an inferno raged all about them. Among all those memories, there was another, one that stood out that bit more clearly than the rest. She could remember a new born star, blazing hot and fierce against a pitch night sky. Over it all, she could hear Zeus' voice, but the words were indistinct, as if they were coming at her across a distance so vast that only the vaguest hints of meaning remained. Concentrating, she strained to remember what he had been saying.

"The sun," Athelis said.

Callisto looked up from the boards beneath her feet. They were not far from shore now. Two hundred metres. Maybe less.

"What about it?" she said, only slightly irritated at being disturbed.

"It's past its zenith," Athelis said. "We've only got half a day's light left."

"More than enough for where we're going," Callisto replied. She clambered to her feet and turned to face the two oarsmen. "You don't need to take us all the way in. We're in the shallows now. We can walk from here."

The two men glanced at one another, then the lead shrugged.

"Whatever you say," he said, seeming almost visibly relieved that he would not have to be spending that much longer in her company.

Callisto could hardly blame him. These days she could hardly stand herself either.

Turning back to Athelis, she hefted her pack so it was high on her shoulder.

"You coming?" she asked, hopping over board as she did so. The water splashed loudly as her boots disappeared in the surf up to her calves. Athelis just nodded and followed suit.

The two of them wasted no time wading in land and padding up the beach, their boots squelching loudly as they went. Callisto paused for a moment as they finally cleared the water line, and took in the landscape around her. It was just as she remembered it. The intervening years had not changed it one little bit. Thick black sand stretched out for miles to her left, but less than a mile to her right. There it ended in a craggy stone cliff face. Ahead of her, the flat expanse of ocean flattened sand ended where it rolled upward into black dunes held together coarse, thick bladed grass, and beyond those dunes, green rolling hills scattered with woodland and occasional low lying scrub.

Closing her eyes, Callisto tried to shut out the constant wash of the ocean at her rear. In her mind's eye she could see it as clearly as if it were yesterday; the two chariots thundering along the waterfront, leaving twinned trails of churned and waterlogged sand in their wake.

The trails were gone now, washed away by the hundreds of high and low tides that had come and gone since, but the memories remained. She remembered the feeling of the adrenaline surging through her, of how she had bellowed her defiance into the wind as behind her, Xena's chariot had closed in. She had not cared about being caught of course, but wondered if she had known then she had but mere minutes to live, would it have changed anything? Probably not she was forced to admit. There, in that moment, the chase had been all that mattered to her. She had relished every minute of it, the sound and fury fueling her, the only things that had been able to make her feel alive. Was that still true, she wondered? Was the fire still all she lived for?

"Something wrong?" Athelis asked, and Callisto had to try hard to keep from starting at the interruption.

"It's nothing," she said, turning and stalking off toward the cliff face. "It's this way."

"What's 'this way'?"

"Just a little bolt hole of mine. We can use it to lay low until Ithius persuades the Delphians not to have me gutted on sight."

"And if he can't persuade them?"

Callisto gave a shrug.

"I'll confess, I hadn't really thought that far ahead."

"Do you ever?"

Callisto paused and glanced back over her shoulder at him.

"Do you ever stop making inane little jibes? Or is it just easier to spend your life wallowing in your own self pity?"

"Not entirely sure I have the monopoly on that."

Callisto bared her teeth at him.

"No," she sneered. "You don't. Now come on. My boots aren't getting any dryer standing about in all this wet sand."

They traipsed on along the beach in silence, the cliff face looming larger and larger while its shadow retreated before them as the sun began to fall in the west. Before too long, they were standing at the cliff's base, in among outcroppings of sea weathered stone encrusted with barnacles and draped with still damp sea weed deposited by the last high tide.

"We can't make camp here," Athelis said. "The tide will be in before sunset, and when it comes this way the whole place will be under water."

"Not all of it," Callisto replied, gesturing for him to follow. Stepping beneath a rocky overhang where the ocean had bitten deep into the cliff, she traced the heavy wall of rock back several yards, finally stopping at a large outcrop of stone that cut the way short.

"In here," she said and Athelis glanced at her in confusion.

"In where?" he said, eyeing the stone. "There's nothing here."

"Behind the outcrop," Callisto said, gesturing again.

Athelis shot her a doubtful look but continued around the outcrop all the same, letting out a brief exclamation as he disappeared out of sight. Callisto allowed herself a small self satisfied smirk before following him.

Around the stone outcrop was another ocean carved opening. Here the constant battering of the waves had cut a hole roughly large enough for two people to fit through if they were walking abreast of one another. The natural tunnel beyond was not particularly long and sloped steeply upward. It had clearly been opened up by the concentrated efforts of nature at both ends, the ocean below and running water from above that even now was busy cutting its way into through the stone in a narrow cleft that ran down the middle of the tunnel. After only a few dozen feet or more, the tunnel opened out into a sizable cavern, lit from overhead by a long narrow shaft no more than a foot wide that stretched up and up through solid stone to the cliff top above.

Athelis was standing close to the centre of the chamber now, his neck craned back as he stared up the shaft.

"Well I'll be..." he breathed turning to face her as he heard her enter the cavern behind him. "Delphi was my home for most of my life, but I've never even heard about a place like this before."

"Guess you don't know this country half as well as you think you do, huh," Callisto goaded him.

"Guess not," Athelis said, not taking the bait and instead turning his attention back to the rest of the cavern. "But other people apparently do."

Callisto just nodded, looking around the cavern herself. It was strange being back here. It had been two years, or perhaps even more – she was not entirely how much time had passed during her numerous deaths and entrapments – yet the place was almost as she remembered it. Moldering furs and other animal skins lay strewn about the various rocky surfaces of the cave, an attempt at comfort by the previous occupants, and heavy iron brackets had been mounted to the walls with thick nails driven deep into the stone. The torches within the brackets, like the animal skins, were equally moldy, the dampness of the air eating away at them, while at the same time the salt from the ocean desiccated and cracked them. The rest of the cavern was filled with other discarded detritus. Broken ale mugs, a shattered tanning rack, and the scorched remnants of long dead campfires were among the debris. Narrowing her eyes she peered about the chamber until she found what she was looking for and felt her stomach tighten at the sight of it. It was exactly where she had left it.

"So..." Athelis began as she walked past him toward the rear most wall of the cavern. "...are you going to tell me how you know about this place?"

Callisto just shrugged.

"There's no real story behind it," she said. "My army tended to attract scum. You know the kind. Thieves, brigands, smugglers, mercenaries," she gave him a pointed look. "Lowlifes of every size and shape, and people like that also tend to attract attention. We needed a sanctuary between raids, and one of them knew about this dandy little cave here. I didn't really see any point in objecting. One place was as good as another, and it was fairly defensible what with only having two ways in or out."

"So what happened?"

"Hmmm?" she said, not really listening, her attention already elsewhere.

"C'mon," Athelis pushed. "This place looks like a hurricane blew through it. Are you seriously going to try and tell me there's not a story behind that?"

"Not one worth telling, no," she answered, gesturing for Athelis to be quiet.

She had reached the rearmost wall that was furthest from the cavern entrances – of which there were actually two – and as she did so, she stepped up onto an almost completely flat outcropping of stone. Upon it was sitting a single chair, quite incongruous alongside all the primitive animal hide rugs and other discarded mess that filled the rest of the cave. Like the torches on the walls, the damp and the sea salts had done much to weather it in the last few years, but it still managed to look sturdy nevertheless.

Stepping up to it, she reached out and ran her fingers gently over the coarse wood. It had become mottled over time, but just touching it brought back a whole host of memories. She remembered being secured to it in the prison cell in Delphi, the thick wooden frame and leather straps holding her fast while the guards had administered one of their many beatings. They had used cudgels mostly, having been afraid to take bladed weapons into the room with her. Imprisoned and restrained though she had been, the security on her had nevertheless been kept fairly tight.

She had not feared the pain that accompanied the beatings. Indeed, she had embraced it. It had been a way to feel alive, while trapped in that dark and dingy hole in earth. It had made her strong where it made other prisoners weak and given her the strength of will to continue where it had robbed others of so it. Somehow, just touching the chair now brought all that pain spiraling back into focus once more. She remembered seeing Xena strapped up in it, forced to watch while Callisto and her men prepared to burn her dear, sweet Gabrielle alive. The look on her enemy's face had been glorious. A beautiful and terrible mixture of fear and desperation as she struggled vainly to be free. Yes. It had been magnificent...

...and at the same time, she realised now, so utterly meaningless. So many had died for that one moment, and so many more had died after, and all for what? The image of Xena's dried and rotting corpse seated in a similar chair before a crackling hearth filled her mind, and all she could think of was how little pleasure any of it had given her in the end. Was Xena even dead? To the best of Callisto's knowledge, she was not, and where once that thought would have lit a fire inside her, now it failed to even create so much as a spark. Instead it was the thoughts of everything else she had done that made her hatred burn, of the life she had spent chasing something so completely worthless.

"It'll give you peace if you let it," she sneered, recoiling from the chair as if from a live cobra.

With a fearsome screech driven by the fury burning in her gut, she pivoted on her heel, and lashed out with a vicious side kick that tore the back of the chair clean off in a shower of splinters and dust. Backstepping, she lifted her leg high then brought her heel down hard on what remained of the chair's frame. There came a savage dry crunching sound, and the chair shattered into pieces, leaving Callisto standing among its remains, her chest heaving in with anger.

"Wow," Athelis said behind her, his voice completely deadpan. "Did the chair do something wrong?"

She rounded on him sharply.

"It's none of your concern," she snapped, stalking to the edge of the outcrop and hopping down from it. "Now come on. We need firewood."

Athelis gave her a steady look.

"firewood?" he said, a touch too evenly.

"You know," Callisto growled as if she were addressing a simpleton. "For a campfire."

Athelis just raised an eyebrow at her.

"Look," she continued. "We're probably going to be holed up here for a while – a couple of days at least I'd imagine – and trust me when I tell you, this place gets chilly after dark, so unless you want to spend the night freezing your hands and feet off, along with any other extremities that shall remain nameless, I suggest you get out onto the beach with me and start looking for driftwood."

Athelis nodded in mock understanding.

"So let me get this straight," he said. "We need to get driftwood."

"Driftwood," Callisto repeated.

"For a campfire."

Callisto nodded.

"By the gods, yes you nitwit! A campfire!"

Athelis glanced over her shoulder at the smashed chair.

"So all that screaming, kicking and smashing was for... what exactly?"

Callisto gritted her teeth together and leaned in close to him.

"Because," she snarled, "we're burning the chair first!"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Happy New Year everybody! This is a short update, because originally this was going to be part of Chapter 2, but it didn't feel right there so it became its own little chapter. Things are going slow in these early chapters as I want to lock in where everyone is and what their states and stakes are. I hope you'll all bear with me as this story takes shape and begins to find its feet. Hopefully I'll be back soon with another update.

EDIT: A couple of small changes... nips and tucks here and there to the dialogue and prose.