Chapter 8
The polka had done its job, all around them people were pairing off and leaving the party, again, even the elderly. Paul came towards them and asked permission to go with his partner, who clearly thought it very interesting to share love with a human and who thought it supremely weird he'd first want to speak to his friends before leaving with her.
Melissa could give him leave without pain, but she did wonder where this would all lead. Still, Lukas was looking very appealing, with some wine in her blood and the world still spinning slightly. So she didn't think any more and just went through another dance with him until she saw stars and was very giddy, and then she followed him through the pitch dark, to a very dark place, where they hugged for what seemed a long time, feeling the other, smelling the other's sun baked scent, kissing and stroking.
And when Melissa's apprehension had changed into a feeling of security in Lukas' familiar arms, and lust took hold of her, he did indeed make love to her roughly, against a tree, until she was moaning with bliss, Paul forgotten for the moment.
Lukas exerted himself again, until he was totally spent, and then they found their bed, after checking the other for Paul's sleeping shape.
He wasn't there, and they hoped he'd crawl in with them when he was ready to sleep. Melissa found she couldn't sleep without him, so she laid awake until she heard him stumble in the dark, heard him in the other room and waited for him to come to this one, which he fortunately did.
And then she took him in his arms, his own scent overpowering any possible smell of another woman, and she laid in the hollow of his arm and nuzzled his neck and chest. He crawled against her as if in great need, she supposed he felt guilty again.
Suddenly she realized that was the real danger to their marriage, not his sharing love, or her claiming him, it was his guilt after the sharing. It would lower his opinion of himself, and he'd find himself unworthy of her love, letting it go piece by piece, until they had drifted apart without Paul even noticing.
Melissa stretched her neck to reach his face, and she kissed him gently. 'Don't feel bad, beloved,' she whispered, 'love is meant to be celebrated.' He couldn't speak, he just held her very tightly. She asked: 'If it makes you feel this bad, why do you do it? I can't stand to see you unhappy.'
Finally he managed to say something, be it with a choked voice: 'They get so close, and they touch me, it excites my body and they notice, and then I can't back out, it would be a dreadful insult. My body betrays me.'
'I'm so sorry Paul, Lukas did ask me if he should save you, and I didn't know. He seems to think this is good for you, maybe you should talk to him about it. You need to let go of your guilt, love, I'm not blaming you for anything, I love you so much.'
She added, to comfort him: 'Anyway, tomorrow we'll be at Katarina's, and she disapproves of sharing love, so you can stay safely with me.' His grip tightened again, and she stroked his hair, ran her hand through it, giving him tiny kisses.
Slowly he relaxed in her arms, and she brushed his mind. He invited her in, and felt her unconditional love for him, her assurance that he was good enough for her. She could feel him shake in her arms, and now he felt her concern for him.
He did feel unworthy, but his love for her was unabated. Worry and love warred in both of them for a few moments, and then love won. Still holding on tightly to one another they fell asleep.
The next morning Lukas woke them up just after sunrise, and after a hearty breakfast they packed their belongings on the donkey and said their goodbyes. Only a few of the villagers were awake, most were still in bed after a long night of feasting.
One of the people waiting was a middle-aged satyr with a misshapen hoof. He bowed and said: 'They said you were a healer, master Lykos, can you please look at my foot? It hurts, and I cannot stand on it properly anymore.'
Lukas laid a hand on his shoulder in sympathy, then kneeled in front of the man, took his foot and activated his Gift. Inside, he saw a nasty infection, and the wall of the hoof had come loose from the inner part. Just seeing it caused Lukas to wince in sympathy, hoofs were just as sensitive as horns, and this looked bad.
He drained the infection and destroyed the shapes that should not be in a body, hoping to take care of the infection.
When he came back to the now he was not even feeling tired, and he asked for a hoof knife, then saw the man blanch. He stroked the bottom of the hoof, and the man winced at his feather touch, despite trying to control his reaction. 'I will have to sedate this hoof, the wall has come loose from the inside and that hurts like hell, but it needs to be trimmed and held together for a few weeks. Can you think of anything?'
Melissa offered: 'You know what the nerves look like, maybe you can soothe them as you did for Hermes? Shall I come with you?'
Lukas nodded, finding a way to block pain would be very useful, not only now.
Looking a bit apologetic, Paul said: 'In a horse, we'd call that laminitis and we'd shoe it for a few weeks to rest the hoof, or trim it regularly until the bad part has grown out. I know this man is not a horse of course...'
But Lukas said: 'How would you attach a shoe, with nails?' Paul nodded.
'He might not like that, he is very sore. But a sturdy leather shoe might work, and regular trimming. Let's do that. First, sedation.'
As they studied the nerves, Lukas first soothed them as he had done before, but he was a god now, and he thought he should be able to do better now, somehow he didn't have to know exactly how things worked anymore to be able to influence them, he just willed it to be and it happened. So he willed the nerves in the hoof to be quiet for a sevenday.
He felt Melissa's mental shrug at his reasoning, she would always be a scientist, but they went back to the now and tried it.
The man didn't react at all, and now Melissa shook her head. That was not how her world worked.
But, since the knife had arrived, Lukas asked Paul to do the trimming, and he did, very carefully, as he always trimmed Lukas' hoofs.
The patient did not feel a thing, not even when Paul carefully trimmed the hoof in a special shape, designed to temporarily move the balance from the separated part to the whole part.
Lukas bound the hoof tightly and drew a pattern to make a shoe for the hoof to keep it immobile for a few weeks. He said: 'Do not run, do not walk very far, do not work for a week. Then the painkiller will wear off, and you can use the foot with the boot until the part with the separation has grown out. Keep it trimmed short, in this way.'
The patient hugged him tightly and thanked him profusely, and then the whole family did the same. There were no other patients, and they soon left the village behind them.
Lukas had the day's march well-planned, the distance was slightly less than they had managed yesterday, and because they were leaving so early, they would most likely reach a little village in time to spend the hottest part of the day there.
Having seen Katarina's influence on the youths, he really wondered how she had managed that. This village was a day's march away from where she lived, and according to the village elders she had never visited, nor had the children in question ever visited Katarina.
And why would she do it? Lukas could not think of a single use that their behaviour would have for Katarina. It would disturb the community of the village, especially if older people would start to get affected, and of course it had already gotten Hermes into trouble with his family. That was really the only possible benefit, unrest in the whole area.
With these thoughts running circles in his mind, Lukas did not notice that his companions were not as carefree as people on a holiday usually are. Neither of them said much, and they clung to each other for support, each with his own anxious thoughts as sole company.
The landscape didn't offer a lot of relief either, it was much the same as yesterday, endless forest on crumbling limestone, already heating up considerably as the sun rose in the blue sky.
After a few hours walking Lukas halted for half an hour to drink some water and eat a piece of fruit they had been given by the villagers, and finally he seemed to notice that something wasn't right.
'I haven't heard a word out of either of you all morning,' he observed, 'is something amiss?' Still no-one said anything.
His attention was directed inwards for a few heartbeats, and then he replied to his own question: 'There is, you are both anxious, I can feel it clearly.
I knew it, I should have saved you yesterday. I'm sorry Paul. From now on, you two stick together, and I'll do the sharing.'
Now Paul said slowly: 'Lukas, no-one forced me to share love with those women. It was my own choice, my body drove me to do it, and then I felt really guilty afterwards.'
And Melissa added: 'I didn't mind Paul sharing love, but I'm afraid he'll feel unworthy of my love, pulling away from me. And Lukas, don't you want to share love anymore then?'
'Can I spend a few hours contemplating what you've just told me? And I was planning to stop at a village to have lunch and a nap, but maybe we'd better find a nice spot like yesterday? Spend some time together?'
The others nodded in unison: 'We'd prefer that, Lukas, we cannot go from village to village feeling insecure and anxious.'
Trust Melissa to find the right words for how he felt, Paul thought. She was the best woman ever, and if she didn't mind him sharing a little love here and there, maybe he should just do it without feeling guilty, as long as they were on this world. For once they were back in London, he would stay true to her forever.
Beneath the trees the heat was not too bad, though Paul suggested they might want to find him cooler footwear if they came across a village large enough to have a shoemaker. The weight of the boots clearly didn't bother him, he was used to that, and the solid boots protected his feet from the impact of the stones lying about everywhere, but they were just too hot.
Considering Paul's request for a moment, Lukas said: 'I was thinking of entering the next village to buy some food, we can try there, though there are not that many humans living there.
Katarina's village is much larger with many more humans, I guess because it is closer to the coast. And we will stay there for a few days, time enough to have a pair made to size if they don't have yours ready-made, your feet are larger than most local men's.'
Now the landscape finally started to change, there was a distinct dip in the path, and they left the forest abruptly and entered a kind of large bowl, clearly one of those sink-holes, only a really large one this time. There was a lake in the middle of the bowl, and the rest of the space was covered with sedges and grass, with low bushes here and there, and large hummocks with taller grasses on top. The path continued, straight into the bowl, but it was no longer made of clay and rocky debris, but rather of sections of wood, small tree trunks and large branches, cut to length and fitted snugly one against the other, as far as the eyes could see.
Lukas said: 'Take care, this is a swamp, a larger stream empties into this sink-hole and the clay on the bottom and the thick layer of dead grasses prevent it from draining. The soil is waterlogged and very unstable, and there are peaty spots that a person would sink right into. Stick to the path and if something happens, yell immediately.'
He led the donkey down the slope and onto the path made of logs, and it was clear neither of them was comfortable placing their narrow hoofs on the uneven surface of the logs. Melissa noticed that some of the logs were almost rotted through, whilst some seemed virtually fresh.
'Can't they use magic to conserve the wood?' she asked, 'it must be a lot of work to replace those logs.'
With a grin, Lukas replied: 'They probably could, but they'd only slow the process in a hot climate like this. And would you care to pray to Hermes and ask him for power to keep a few logs from rotting? Most people don't have the kind of personal power Paul here has, nor the intimate relationship you have to a god.
If this place wasn't situated in the middle of a forest, they would probably have conserved it as you suggest, but as it is, it is easier to just chop a few trees and cut them into logs right here.'
'I'd still treat as many as my power allowed, then a few the next time. In the end it would pay off, I'm sure,' was Melissa's rather stubborn comment.
Lukas grinned even more cheekily and observed dryly: 'Which is why you are an engineer, and they are herders, I guess.'
That comment got a laugh out of all of them, and Paul said admiringly: 'Melissa would probably construct a bridge over the whole valley, or contrive to drain it to make safe grassland for sheep and cattle.' And seeing Melissa's expression she was contemplating how to do just that.
Halfway down the swamp they heard a distressed voice crying for help, which was startling, for this was not a busy path. The sound came from just ahead, and as they continued the path, they could see a youngster in great panic, pointing at a spot right in the middle of the hummocky part of the swamp, where a long-horned cow was struggling in the mud.
She lowed weakly, and each low was answered by a small chorus of similar lows from an unseen herd.
'Please, help me, my cow is drowning in the swamp, can't you help me? You have feet, you will not sink in the mud as quickly, please master!' the youngster was addressing Paul now, he was clearly the lightest among them with feet. Paul was eyeing the swamp between himself and the cow, clearly recognizing the truth in the boy's statement.
'You're not going to risk your life for a cow, Paul,' Lukas said with authority, 'Melissa is right, this is a land of magic, and magic shall be used.' His face blanked out for a moment and he lighted up, a lot this time, and he asked Paul: 'Do you know how to handle a cow?'
The taller man answered: 'Just like a horse?'
Lukas nearly laughed out loud and said: 'That'll do. All right, go get her.'
And Paul, trusting Lukas with his life, stepped off the path, and took the shortest route towards the poor animal, sinking into the soft ground only a tiny bit. As he neared the animal, it stopped its thrashing, the boy clearly took good care of his animals that it trusted a person even in these dire straits.
Paul managed to take hold of the lead rope, and called in a friendly voice, stepping backwards slowly, indeed as if trying to get a horse to follow him. The unfortunate creature tried to follow, heaving against the sucking mud, but it could not get out by itself.
Now they could see Paul lighting up with magic-use, and with a certain amount of astonishment the three on the path saw the cow rise up out of the mud until it floated just above the surface. Paul pulled the lead rope and the shape of the cow came towards him. Then he coolly walked back to the path, the cow on its own legs now, and not sinking into the mud even the slightest bit, though still rather wild-eyed.
As they reached the path, Paul handed the lead rope to the young man, then dismissed his own bit of magic, and the cow's whole weight rested on her own feet again.
'Thank you so much, master,' the boy whispered in awed amazement, 'thank you for saving my cow. Will you come with me to the village? The elders will want to thank you as well, the other cows are waiting on the path just ahead.'
Melissa could see Lukas dismissing his spell, making the surface soft again, and she told him: 'Don't let him think humans can walk on that, he needs to know you did that or people will die.' But Paul wasn't going to let that happen either, and he said to the boy: 'Lykos here used magic to firm the ground, and I used magic to make your cow much lighter than she really is. It is not something any human can do, they'd drown as quickly as your cow would have.'
'I realize that master, I saw my cow fly for a moment. She doesn't usually do that. Thank you all the same for telling me! I'll be more careful next time.' The boy still looked at Paul with worship in his eyes, apparently magic was not so common after all in this part of Lukas' world, or he just liked the look of Paul.
They made another one of those entrances, with a herd of cows this time, one of which was covered in mud. The boy took the cows to their pen, and returned with an armful of hay for the donkey. Then he told the story of how the stranger saved the cow by walking over mud and letting the cow fly, and he clearly enjoyed telling tales.
It had grown a little bit in this first telling, and it was sure to grow a lot more in the future, as he spread it amongst his friends, and their friends.
Still, it gave the villagers something to talk about, and as all the attention went to Paul, Lukas and Melissa could have a good look around the village and its people without attracting undue notice.
There were no humans in this village, just satyrs, and they seemed to be unaffected by Katarina's affliction, as they had come to call it amongst themselves, as if it were a sickness that people could catch.
But suddenly Lukas remembered that is was only afternoon, anyone taking their work too seriously would still be at it, so he asked one of the villagers whether everyone was present.
'No,' was the answer, 'most of the young people are still out in the fields, they work all day and sleep all night, they never have any fun anymore.'
'How many are there like that, and do they dress differently?' were Lukas' next questions.
'Ten youngsters, including Romano here, our herder, and five married couples with young children,' was the man's reply, and suddenly they realized the herder boy had been wearing trousers.
'We cannot take time to cure them,' Lukas decided, 'we need to get to the root of this problem by talking to Katarina. They will have to try for themselves if the spell can be broken.'
Even as Lukas said this he looked at Melissa and found her returning his stare. A spell! What if Katarina had been enchanted to act as she did?
'Come on,' Lukas said, 'we need to move on, we need to see her. If she is spellbound, breaking it will cure everyone instantly. Won't it?'
Melissa tended to forget that Lukas had as little history with magic as she had, he seemed so comfortable using it. Of course he had had a lot of practice in a short time.
'I don't know, Lukas, but Paul will,' she told him, and they thanked the villager for answering their questions. They called out to Paul, who still had the cattle boy hanging on his very words, and told him they had to leave immediately.
The boy pressed them into staying just for lunch, and they decided they could use the rest and the better food. As they ate, Melissa felt free to check out their young host with sight, and it seemed there was indeed some magic at work. There was a loop somewhere in his brain, and she wanted Lukas to look at it too, so she brushed Lukas' mind and when he let her in, showed him what she had seen.
He reached out for the cheese, and touched the boy instead, activating his Gift immediately. Melissa anchored him to be on the safe side, and that was for the best, for the loop tried to pull Lukas in, and would have succeeded without an anchor.
Lukas' Gift did nothing, this was clearly not a sickness of the brain or a disease, it was a spell put on the young man on purpose. The power was astonishing, it was as if the boy had been bespelled by a god. But when did a god visit a village like this?
Lukas tried to break the bond and barely succeeded. The loop recoiled, probably causing the caster of the spell some discomfort, but of course, he would be far removed from this remote area, and a god would hardly notice one spell broken amongst many still intact.
This case was starting to smell, and now they might have alerted whoever was behind it to their presence. They would have to move, and it would have to be fast.
The breaking of that powerful spell had left Lukas a bit fuzzy, and he had a hard time pretending everything was fine.
But soon the focus came to rest upon the boy, for he shook his head and said: 'I feel a bit weird, I remember doing things I'd never do. What happened?'
He scratched his trousers where they touched the hair on his legs, and quietly removed them, asking: 'Is Yura all right? Where is my wife?'
However interesting it would have been to see how his wife would react to him, and how he would fit into his age-group, they could not linger, they needed to reach Katarina as quickly as possible.
The donkey was loaded once more, and they started on the path towards Katarina's village.
The forest on the other side of the village was different, the pine trees were making room for more leafy trees, shading the path and rendering the forest decidedly cooler than the pine forest they had been walking through the last one and a half days.
'We're nearing the coast, there is a little more moisture in the air and in the soil,' Lukas explained, still we'd do better to rest for a few hours. But I feel rushed, if you feel up to it I'd like to walk as long as we can stand the heat.'
Finding the heat tolerable for now, Melissa, who suffered the most from the pace at which they were travelling and the sweltering heat, observed: 'I can still walk, Lukas, and I agree to go on until I cannot bear the heat anymore, but we do need to spend at least an hour together, to talk about the things we discussed this morning, sharing love, remember?'
Lukas nodded, and replied: 'It will not be long before we have to stop, but I'd like to put some distance between us and the place where I broke that spell. If nothing else happens the caster may ignore it, but we cannot count on that, I must see Katarina as soon as possible.'
'We can give any spies something to watch by working on the necklace, pulling away any notice from the village. I find working metal very restful, even using magic.' That was an excellent idea, it would give Paul inner rest, create a trace for possible watchers to follow, and it would give Melissa the chance to cool down for a while.
'Excellent idea, Paul, but can we go on until you are both tired first?' What was driving Lukas? He had been so relaxed earlier, Melissa decided not to think about it but just walk on until she could walk no longer.
And she turned out to be made of much sterner stuff than they had thought, for she lasted at least two more hours, helped by the cooling properties of this forest, but also by an iron determination not to falter before a likely resting site was found right next to the path.
This time it was not a sink-hole, there must have been a change in the bedrock too, for they came upon a little valley with a tiny stream running in the middle. The banks were lovely and green, there was a lush meadow right beside the path where they could tether the donkey, and it was all just too fortunate to move on.
Melissa crashed in the grass, Lukas unloaded the donkey and tied it to a sapling on the edge of the little meadow. Paul untied and removed his boots once more, then unrolled his collection of tools and materials.
Seeing that Melissa was fast asleep already, the guys decided to use magic one by one, the other filing yesterday's dolphins, to keep an eye on the road and on the rest of their surroundings. But first, Lukas kissed Paul wholeheartedly, to top off his supply of magic power.
'How do I let go of the guilt, Lukas?' Paul asked, as soon as he had his breath back.
Lukas replied: 'You can even allow the guilt, Paul, as long as you don't feel unworthy of Melissa's love. Imagine how you would feel if the situation was reversed, actually you don't need to, you can just remember the time you were still jealous. Did you ever find Melissa unworthy of your love because she shared love with me?'
That caused Paul to protest: 'You cannot compare her situation to mine, she shared only with you, and we both loved you.'
To his shock, Paul saw Lukas shake his head, and he said: 'Actually, I think she didn't really love me until much later, she shared love with me at first to save my life and to make me feel less lonely. She may have loved me, but not as an equal partner, the way you both love me now. She loved you so much more than me, that if the situation were still that way, I would retreat. I couldn't then because I was totally dependent on both of you, and I had not discovered jealousy yet.'
'Lukas, I just cannot believe that,' Paul said softly, unable to believe his ears, 'you're not thinking of leaving us now, are you?'
'I most certainly am not, I have her love now, and I have yours, and I want both so much, I can never let you out of my life willingly.
But though I have found jealousy in myself, I find I am not jealous of your other lovers, and I'm no longer jealous of any other lovers Melissa might take here, for I know that in the end all three of us will always come back together.'
'Well,' Paul said, 'now it is my turn to think about things, and I'll have plenty of time to do it, for there will be no temptations at Katarina's.'
And Lukas smiled at him and they went to work.
Melissa slept for two hours, in which four more dolphins saw the light of day, and yesterday's two imperfect ones were filed and buffed until they were.
'Aren't you even slightly tired with the magic you worked today, Lukas?' Paul asked, as they were stowing away the materials.
'I was incredibly tired,' was his surprising answer, 'but it was mental, not physical, so it didn't hinder my walking, to me walking is no exertion, it is a kind of natural state. My muscles don't tire anymore, so my mind took a long rest whilst my body walked on.'
They woke up Melissa, and talked for another half hour about sharing love and about marriage vows, and Melissa really couldn't find any objections against Paul sharing love, as long as he enjoyed it and didn't feel forced. And she didn't like to stay all alone.
With Lukas still feeling rushed, they quickly loaded the donkey and went on, and after two more hours of walking, in time for an early dinner, they reached the outskirts of the village in which Katarina used to live, called Ephyra.
It was clear from the start that this village was different from the ones in the mountains, for it was not walled. From where they were standing Melissa could see the coast, and what she supposed was the harbour, for there was a concentration of mast sticking up from behind the houses nearest the sea.
Those houses were built very close together, with just tiny alleys between them, whereas the houses closest to them were larger, with sizeable gardens filled with olive trees, patches of well-cared for vegetables, and beautifully coloured flowers, rambling over the white-washed walls and the red tiles.
This was a very picturesque village, every single house looked neat and clean, very well-kept, and the gardens were immaculate, even the out of the way corners, not refuse anywhere, everyting was perfect.
The reason for that perfection soon became clear, they saw people hard at work everywhere, no-one even looked up at their entering the village, and there was not a single uncovered satyr or bare-kneed woman in sight.
Humans were clearly more numerous here than deeper into the countryside, and the size of the village was clear from the number of houses but also from the number of shops.
There was a tang of the sea in the air, and gulls were flying overhead, a logical consequence of being so close to the shore. Of course Lukas knew where his daughter used to live, and they followed him through alleys of neat, white washed houses with freshly starched curtains and perfectly painted shutters, across perfectly paved squares to a large, well-built house with a smithy attached.
As they stood in front of the house, they heard a hammer ringing, and Lukas and Paul were just unstoppable, they virtually ran into the shop, where the sound of the hammer ceased, and Lukas was jumped by a horned shape. There was no sound, but Lukas caught his brother-in-law expertly and they hugged and kissed.
'Lykos, we thought you were dead,' Galan was crying, still holding on to his dear friend, 'Katarina was broken about it. She couldn't sense you anywhere, and she thought that meant you were dead in a ditch somewhere. I can't believe it's really you! What happened to your horns? Were you branded?'
'I chose to have them removed, Galan, I was abducted and managed to flee to a world where our civilisation is just a memory, a footnote in history. There are only humans left, and I had to remove my horns to fit in.'
'Let us find Katarina and then you can introduce us to your friends. I guess one of them must be a smith, like me,' he was looking at Paul, who was gazing around the shop with intense pleasure, breathing in the smell of overheated metal with relish, clearly aching to apply himself to the bellows or the furnace, though it was a rather primitive one.
Galan opened a door in the back of the smithy, and led them through a short hall into a large kitchen. It was a primitive kitchen of course, no running water and certainly no boiler, but it was clearly a room meant for cooking, with a terracotta fireplace.
There were no servants about, and Galan called out: 'Katarina, will you come out? There is someone here to meet you.'
Steps were heard in the room adjacent to the kitchen and a woman came in through an opening in the wall, at a brisk pace. She was not as intensely beautiful as her mother, but her narrow face and longish nose reminded Melissa irresistibly of Lukas, making her much more attractive in her eyes. She was very slim and dressed in a long gown that covered her arms halfway.
As the woman saw Lukas, she cried out and nearly fainted. Lukas caught her expertly, and took her in his arms with tears streaming from his eyes.
She cried heart-rendingly, and clung to Lukas as if she was afraid he'd disappear again. Then she held him at arm's length and took a really good look at him, as if to check if it really was him, then clung to him once more, still crying.
Lukas lifted her easily, and sat down on an easy chair with his daughter in his lap, stroking her hair and rubbing cheeks eagerly. After a few minutes she managed to speak: 'Abba, you live! I couldn't find you anywhere, I knew you had to be dead. I missed you so much, I needed you so much!' Lukas wrapped her in his arms once more, and they did not release one another for a very long time.
She cried out: 'Oh Lykos, what happened? Your beautiful horns, who took them? You weren't branded, were you? You did nothing wrong, I know you can't have, you are too good and too honest. Please tell me what happened.'
And Lukas did, he summarized everything that had happened to him to his daughter, and she hugged him again, and cried again, at what he had suffered. But she also felt his happiness at discovering love that lasted, and something he really liked to do, and finally, his Gift.
Galan had shown Paul and Melissa to chairs of their own, and had fetched drinks and sat down with them. He seemed truly happy to have Lukas back, and the couple didn't seem to be the basis of a disruptive cult at all. This was all very strange and disturbing.
'Katarina, please let me introduce my dearest friends to you. They saved my life, they love me unconditionally and they came with me to find you. This is Melissa, and this is Paul. Melissa, Paul, please meet Katarina, my daughter, and Galan, her husband.'
Of course shaking hands was not a custom here, so both Katarina and Galan embraced their father's loyal friends, and then Lukas came straight to the point. 'Father said you were in great trouble, Katarina, what happened?'
Katarina looked infinitely sad, and started to explain: 'You know I never wanted to share love, or wear normal clothes, but I never told you why.' And with this, she opened the top of her dress, revealing a beautiful pair of breasts, and a chest mottled like Lukas' from top to bottom.
'The spots showed up when I was thirteen. I could never have hidden my true parentage if I had ever taken another lover. I knew Galan would never tell anyone, and I didn't want to endanger you by allowing father to know he's actually my grandfather. How did you know you were my true father, Lykos? Even mother only suspects.'
'I don't know how I knew, Katarina, I also suspected, but when I set foot on this world again I was sure,' was Lukas' answer.
She observed: 'I never felt your return, even though I clearly felt your sudden absence.' She blanked out for a moment and said, understanding dawning on her: 'I see, you have greatly changed, its not just a Gift you got.'
'So, I never shared love and wore concealing clothing, but for the rest Galan and I just made a living quietly, enjoying our life despite not having any children. We moved to this village to help our careers, we needed a harbour nearby to sell our work. Mother never understood.
Then about half a year ago, I think just before your disappearance, someone ordered a lovely copper decanter with extensive ornamentation, which was strange, since that is not really what Galan does, he is more into the heavier stuff, iron mostly.
But he liked the challenge and made a fabulous piece, and the buyer asked to treat us both to a lovely vintage as a reward. We felt strange afterwards, and people started to follow our habits, and deny free love. I have long thought that that man put a spell on me, pulling people in to follow our habits and destroying order in the region.
But I didn't dare let Hermes check me for tampering, for he'd find out about you, and even though I was convinced you were dead, I didn't want your reputation sullied even more. Besides, he was offensive, blaming and threatening me.
The weird thing is, I don't feel any different myself. I still like to work, making fabrics from the basis, starting with raw wool from the local herds and ending up with colourful fabrics.
'Katarina makes the thinnest wool fabric anyone has ever seen,' was Galan's proud comment, 'traders buy every stitch for a good price.'
'I never wanted anyone to work all day and sleep all night! I'd share love too, if I dared. It's unhealthy not to, Galan does it, but it's getting dangerous, for if the cultists find out...' Katarina really didn't seem affected by the sickness or curse herself.
She was just a normal woman trying to make a living. She seemed important in the local community, helping out the poor, and giving people sound advice on how to start a business, buying local produce for her own business. Even if she were not Hermes' daughter, she would be the ideal figure to use to spread a disruptive spell like this one.
Lukas now asked: 'Katarina, may I check your mind for tampering? I have reason to believe a god is involved, and I want to be sure. You are both in grave danger, my father has been threatened by his father and sister to stop the cult, or they would stop it with force. He had to go to the Oracle to find me, whoever did this also tried to rid himself of me permanently. Though I still wonder why he didn't just kill me and dump the body.'
That upset Katarina all over again, and she clung to her father once more. Melissa thought his role as a father suited him very well, she didn't even fear his seriousness, she knew the rakish Lukas would be back once the crisis was over.
She said: 'I know you want to do that straight away, Lukas, but afterwards I want to see your fabrics, Katarina, if you don't mind showing me.'
Of course Katarina didn't mind, in fact she was fascinated by Lykos' two outlandish friends, especially Melissa with her voluptuous size, her pale skin and her copper coloured hair, but also with Paul, a strong, handsome man, very tall and very appealing. He already knew who she was, that she was Lykos' daughter instead of Hermes', when this was over maybe she could share love with him, or with both of them.
She was still in a lot of danger, and it frightened her that a god had known her habit to hide her body from the world and used it to sow discontent amongst her people, but she had great faith in Lykos, he was one of the gods himself and he would set everything to rights.
'Katarina, I am going to tell my father about you, and me,' Lykos said, 'you should not have to live this way to protect me from my own father. Father and I have grown a lot closer the last few months, so I think he will handle it well. And if not, Melissa can soothe him, he has a very weak spot for her.' He had not lost his cheekiness, thank the gods!
