Observations from a borderline

"A god!" I heard myself blurt out, almost spilling my juice. I had to look again at the fragile-looking patient in the four poster bed, to make sure I was not mistaken, but the aura gave the man with the wax-coloured skin away. There were yellows and orange in that faltering aura, telling me it was a ruler- and city god lying there. As well as some white hinting at weather abilities. A once powerful god no doubt. But what could harm a man like that and put him on the brink of death? And how could they possibly expect Xena to help him? Or was it...?

The swarthy and slender man who was sitting next the dying god rose from his chair, he seemed to echo my doubts, a confused look upon his comely face as he scratched his beard.
"Chizay, what have you been thinking? This is but a mortal medic. She doesn't have what it takes. I told you we're going to need a..."
"A god, yeah. A healing god. And she will be on her way soon."
"What do you mean?"

"This - Xena - is but bait. The one we want is her best friend. A Karkheidian healer goddess named Narinda who have been working in Darangorlad for a bit more than two years. We've been having our eyes upon her for a while, thinking her being worth recruiting. Unfortunately she has allied herself with the Greeks now, after being seduced by their Ares."
"The blood thirsty one?"
"Yes, he made her pregnant and now she's living together with him so we could not approach her the way we originally planned. So we have brought this Xena here to lure Narinda to come to her. If the healer goddess doesn't help us she'll see the death of her old friend."

"But we don't have the time to send a messenger to..."
"Don't worry, Damak. She already knows. She's spying upon us right now, you see!"

At those words I backed off involuntarily and so fast that I toppled the scrying pool and as it fell down from the table with a clatter the water was spilled out over the floor. Swearing out loud I pressed my fists to my temples. It had been a trap all the way. A trap to lure me to that place. The poor Xena was but a mean to get me there.
"Ares" I sobbed and then I started to cry uncontrollable. I had no idea about what to do.

¨*o¨o*¨

I don't know how long it took until my love found me sitting in almost the same position, tears streaming down my face. His intuition had warned him that something was wrong and thus he had asked Sthenephon to watch over Kalian for a while before he came sprinting up to me. Ares kneeled in front of me and took my hands in his, having me blink away my tears and meeting his concerned brown eyes:
"Didi - what is wrong? What happened? Is it - Xena?"

I told him what had happened, what I had seen and heard, and he sighed and shook his head.
"Those bastards! Always dealing with cards beneath the table. And people ask me why I'm fighting them. This is not the first time these gods have been playing foul games of this kind."
"Ares, what are we going to do?"
"Go there of course. Go there and get Xena out. I won't let them hurt her."
"Thank you" I leaned over and hugged my beloved hard, the tears forming in my eyes now were of joy rather than sorrow. I could count on him. I could always count on my Ares. I should have known that!

"But Ares - these gods are... How many are they? Can we liberate her without..? What if they hurt her? Can we really prevent that?"
"Of course. We just have to do this the sneaky way. We need to start over with the scrying, see where they have put her now when that little charade towards her is over."
"Poor Xena! Did I tell that Chizay had noticed me scrying upon her all the time?"

"No – but I'm not surprised. There are gods who have those abilities. Some of my siblings do. Still it matters little at the moment; there are several other fail-proof ways to find Xena within Rhembosia. I have some aces up my coat too, you see. Nevertheless, first of all we need to organize our leave taking. We're going to need arms and some other useful tools we can carry with us in an easy way. You should bring some medical supplies as well, we might be needing them. Kalian will have to stay here with Sthen and the others of course. But it won't take long..."

"Are you sure?"
"Didi! Trust me! I know this business; I've been in it for centuries. I've been liberating hundreds of poor sods in peril before your Xena. A lot of them in far worse situations to be true."
"But these gods..."
"Are aggressive and vulgar-mouthed yes. But they're decimated these days. Far from their former glory. The one you saw in that bed is Ikaton, the man who used to lead their once powerful pantheon."
"Like your father does in Greece."

"Yes. But Ikaton has had some troublesome centuries. First two of his sons defect him and travel eastwards to find glory and women instead of marrying those Ikaton wanted them to marry. One of them was killed by Baal and the other one disappeared somewhere between Babylon and India. Probably someone killed him too, although our intelligence failed to find out when and who. I think it might've been Baal too. Or perhaps Marduk."
"I don't know any of these gods." I whispered. Ares rubbed my back, upper arms and shoulders and went on:

"I'll tell you about these two later. They were quite humungous both of them. What happened afterwards is that the three remaining sons started to fight us Greeks without their father's consent. Since then I've killed two of them. Taniroth you know about and his younger brother Telkor I put to rest at the end of the last Greek-Anatolian war thirty years ago. One son remains, Saion, and where he is no one know at the moment. Saion's son is Damak who you saw with Ikaton. And Chizay is a daughter of Telkor."
"That is why she hates you so much. You killed her father."
"Yes I did. Although she ought to know as well as I and the rest who marsh off to war that such are the rules of the game. Either you kill or you become killed. Or you stay at home."

"So there's Chizay and Damak. And the dying Ikaton. Any more gods?"
"Yes, Damak's wife Lelda and their son Okran. Okran might be aspiring upon the position of war god now when Taniroth is gone, but I don't know if he has what it takes. Besides being crazy enough." Ares laughed sarcastically.

"You're not crazy, beloved."
"Thanks, Didi. Then Ikaton has two daughters too - Liko and Lossa, none of them have made any lasting imprint on the patterns of history. Neither has Lossa's son Balnak, he's mostly into drinking, eating and sleeping around. But what we need to watch out for are the Semlis. Those you referred to as 'the silver beings'. One and one they are not that impressive, one dark warrior might step on them and they crack. But they are like wasps - plenty and plenty and thus they can sting you really bad."
"I have remedies for wasps, Ares."
"Good!" My love laughed. "Then nothing's going to stop us!"

¨*o¨o*¨

The sun was beaming down relentlessly from a whitish blue sky and the air was shimmering with heat as Ares and I landed on a rock outcropping of one of the steep, snow-capped mountains surrounding the Rhembosian area. We had got here after some fifteen minutes of flight across the Anatolian land. The city lied within a round valley, surrounded on three sides by the mighty Tolian Mountains, like a natural and impressive city wall. On the fourth side the endless Anan prairie opened up with its brownish grass and thickets of thorn bushes and cacti. It was a desolate and harsh scenery, far from the lush nature of the sea-side landscapes. The only animals living here were undemanding grazers, snakes and insects. A lot of insects. The river Rhem still flew like a blue ribbon across the valley but Ares told that it usually dried up as the season moved on.

"That's when their gods leave for their summer home up in the mountains." Ares said. "Quite a bit north-east of here. It's not like Olympos though, far from it. It's more like a fortress. A cave home."
"Sounds secure."
"Yeah, but confining."
"At the same time, living like that on an island in the middle of a city - not much privacy I take it. Lots of mortals trying to reach you."

"Oh, they guard their perimeter well enough" Ares commented. "You saw for yourself the gates and the guardians of the Rainbow Bridge. They won't let any intruder in."
"What about other gods?"
"I guess they're not expecting them. If we're prompt enough we can get trough. And I'm convinced we are, Didi."

I looked at the city of high spires out there in the middle of the valley, its perimeter some four miles east of our vantage point. Rhembosia reminded me slightly of the mighty Inthorergon, but the Greek city lacked those high towers, instead it sprawled off in all directions save for west, where the Aegean halted it. Inthorergon, which had lived in the shadow of Troy for so many centuries, until the Argive forces decided to destroy the latter in The Great Civil War. That was less than two hundred years ago and in that short period of time Inthorergon had grown ten times its original size and become by far the largest of the Eastern Hellas cities. Still Rhembosia seemed even grander and under other circumstances I might have wanted to go exploring that city instead, find what beauty and secrets she held.

"Here" Ares handed me a plum-sized orb of silver.
"What's it for?"
"It's called a 'searcher'. It'll locate Xena for us, so we won't have to scry and risk being discovered. But since you know her better than I you'll have to imprint her vision into it so it can find her."
"How do I do that?"
"This orb contains two kinds of magic fields. One for transportation and another one which compares an image of what or who you are looking for with what it perceives around itself. What you have to do is connect to the latter field and impose a picture of Xena upon it. As well as some kind of emotion connected to the real Xena, I guess she feels angst and anxiety at the moment. Put it in there as well!"

I concentrated and did as Ares told. It took some tries to get it right, to make the image detailed enough for the orb to find Xena and still not making it too large. A large reference image would take too long to process, Ares explained, and the orb would have difficulties to locate Xena quickly. On the other hand it was tiny enough to avoid being discovered save for the most observant eyes, I guessed. Especially eyes who didn't expect such a little thing to come snooping around. Finally I returned the orb to my beloved who threw it into the air towards the Anatolian city. Ares' throw was powerful and the velocity of it lasted long. Then, after a while the orb started to fly by itself, shimmering like a falling star as it headed towards Rhembosia.

"Amazing gadget!" I marveled. "Where did you get that one?"
"My little brother made it. Hephaestos."
"Hephaestos. The divine manufacturer. I should have guessed."

Then I said nothing for a while as my eyes followed the orb which was closing in on the city. I regarded it until it arrived into Rhembosia and disappeared behind some buildings. Then I turned to Ares again.
"So now what?"
"We wait."
"How long?"
"'Till the orb returns, which might take a while, so better make yourself comfortable, dear."
"Easy enough with you around." I smiled, leaned back against the war god's wide chest, threaded my slender fingers between his large ones and let my head rest upon his upper torso. In return my beloved nuzzled his head against my shoulder and kissed me on my neck.
"Then let's get comfy, Didi" he chuckled. Then he started to kiss me the way only he could, and I turned around in his arms and returned his affection, certain we would use the waiting time well.

¨*o¨o*¨

Ares was right; we had to wait quite a while until the orb finally returned. The sun had set, the stars were coming out one by one and in the east a large, yellow cheese of a moon hung halfway over the horizon. We had sat down, Ares with his back against the rock and I between his long legs. First I didn't know what that fizzing sound in the air was, thought it being a big insect, a dragonfly perhaps. But Ares rose and plucked the object out of the sky and then he placed it on the ground in front of us. He didn't let go entirely through, but rested two fingers upon the shiny orb for a moment. Then suddenly it seemed to come alive, gleaming and fizzing anew, like it was going to take off again. But instead a purplish blue ray shoot up towards Ares' hand and swiftly he pulled his hand upwards and slightly to his left. In accordance with his motion the ray formed itself into a broad fan shape and upon that shimmering screen a building turned up. A building I recognized. The Anatolian divine palace.

"She's still there?"
"Yes."
Then the picture turned, tilted and we could regard the magnificent palace from above for a few moments instead, before it zoomed in against a dark courtyard and a lit window. Now I saw Xena again. I guess I had feared some kind of dungeon or oubliette, but my friend sat in a luxurious suite even better than that hotel room where I had found her the same morning. Still that was no comfort for her, she was crying heartbreakingly, and I could tell that she had done so for a while. There were no feelings connected to that image, still I could sense her fear and loneliness as a hard slam in my belly. My poor friend! Set up by foreign gods in a stranger land. That must've been even more terrible than to battle with Ares and getting injured, I guessed. After all in a war you knew that these things could happen. But as a healer in a neutral city you didn't expected to be tricked and kidnapped.

It really felt strange and scary; I was not used to see my friend cry like that. The only times I'd seen Xena with tears in her eyes were when she had failed to save the life of a child. But even then her tears had been restrained and moderate. Not this painful sobbing that made me feel sad, angry and assaulted by a bad conscience at the same time. Why hadn't I paid more attention to Chizay and her plans back in Darangorlad? I had heard the goddess talk, I should've listened in. I should've suspected something.

Then I begun to worry about what it was that killed Ikaton. What if that strange threat would mean a risk for me and Ares as well? How could we defend us from that unknown force? Ares was always talking about knowing the enemy, now here we had something none of us recognized. A dark horse in the game and a terrible one too. How would we deal with it? Would I really be able to cure that dying god if I got the chance? And should I do it? The oath I had sworn to Asklepios once was about always, under whatever circumstances; use my powers and my knowledge to save lives. But this man was the enemy. No matter if he really had sent his sons against The Hellas Commonwealth or not, he was considered the foe. And how would Ares react if I saved Ikaton? Was my beloved ready to sacrifice Xena to see Ikaton dead? No, I realized, then we wouldn't be here at all.

"Didi," Ares interrupted my thoughts. "We got to get moving, the sooner the better."
"They will suspect that we are coming, right?"
"Of course they will, so we cannot count on any extensive element of surprise. On the other hand they might not expect us to be around so quick so we can still rock the boat a bit."
"So what do we do, Crash right in, grab her and zap out."
"If it was that easy!" Ares smiled. "Then people like me would hardly be needed. No, their pantheon and the place where they keep Xena are most certainly highly guarded. We must find the way in they least expect us to use. And most of all we cannot fly, a flying god is among the easiest thing to discover, it's like calling out 'hey here we are, come and get us!'"
"I know," I replied. "After all I did run on the ground when I fled from your dark warriors a few days back. Carrying Kalian without tapping in divine strenght. I was so afraid."
"Yes, you're a smart gal, sweetie. Thus you know we must travel incognito. As mortals."

"Disguised" I smiled slightly. "I'm not sure... I mean I can hide my aura from mortals, have been doing that more or less my whole life. Only a few people knew who I was - those I chose to tell and the all too few immortals I met. But hiding from gods, that's a completely different story. I don't know..."
"Didilove, cloaking against mortals is quite enough for starters, since there'll only be mortals out in Rhembosia tonight. And most of them being more or less drunk too. Partygoers. Young people celebrating their sprouting lives, war veterans drinking to forget and whores looking for deals. The Anatolian gods are not searching for us, not at the moment at least."
"How do you know?"
"Because then they would have watchful eyes down in the city. And I would have sensed them. But there's not a probing soul out there this evening. So either the Anatolians don't expect us so soon – or that's exactly what they do."

"How do you mean?" I wrinkled my brows.
"That they are more or 'welcoming' us. Setting up the trap. Remember, they want you there. To try curing Ikaton."
"And we should just walk in to that trap?"
"No, we'll do our best to avoid it, and still getting Xena out. We can do it, I'm certain!"

I looked at Ares where he stood in the light of the rising moon and looking so heartbreakingly sincere and determined. Ready to fight over a friend of mine who had called him the rudest things. He didn't care about their miserable rapport; he was out to help - to save in spite.
"I love you, Ares dear." I said and reached up and stroke his whiskered cheek.
"And I love you, Didi," he replied, took my hand and kissed it gently. "Now, come on, we have a job to do. Let's get going."