Chapter Four

Thebes, circa 475 B.C.E.:

I'd become after twenty-five years of fighting and inter-city war, one of the senior members of the army. I was content with my life… a junior officer… a captain of men… not a general… not a planner of campaigns. My abilities and influence did not reach so high. During the downtimes, I spent time with my companion of the moment, I attended banquets given by the wealthy, who wished to be thought influential… and I trained men.

Ahh… the banquets of that time! They began at sundown and lasted throughout the night. Low tables positively groaning in the abundance of food. Bards strummed their lyres and told great tales of the mighty heroes of days gone by. Men spoke of philosophy and debated morality and law. The wine flowed… and sex was abundant. A blind eye was turned to those who wished to couple in the dining hall itself. I tell you… the fabled orgies of Rome in later centuries had nothing on the parties of Thebes.

During one of the banquets I attended, I was approached by a woman, the wife of a general as it turned out. She offered herself to me. As I was currently with someone… I declined. She did not take it well. She spoke lies in my general's ears of how I'd attempted to ravish her against her will.

My general chose to believe his wife. She could be very persuasive. I was sent on expeditions that had slim chance of success. Yet I succeeded… and brought back treasure, slaves, tribute, heads; in short, whatever was needed. My renown as a warrior grew.

Laurels were placed on my head. Parades and games were held in my honor. More banquets were thrown. In short… my fame grew… as did her hate… and her lies. Nightly she spoke her poison into my general's ears until he glared at me with open animosity. And I… I did not know what I had done to anger him… and worked harder to bring him tribute and glory.

After a particularly successful campaign, I was feted at my general's home. His wife brought me a cup of wine before all who were gathered, and knelt before me… begging my pardon for her misdeeds. She bared her breasts before me… indicating that my general had given her to me as a gift for the evening. I would dishonor him if I refused. I was full of myself and took the cup from her hand to drain it, signifying my acceptance of the gift. She smirked as I drank… and I knew it was my death in her hand. I recalled Danaë's prophecy to me… that I would never die in battle… that no man would ever defeat me in single combat. Her words were prophetic. I died by treachery and a woman's hand.

When I awoke, I thought only that somehow I had survived the poison. I lay wrapped in fine linen on a bier in the temple, awaiting the lighting of the funeral fire come dusk. I was to have had a hero's funeral. My ashes were to have risen to the stars. Priests would have whispered my name along with the heroes of legend… Herakles… Jason… Achilles… Odysseus. I had but one thought when I awoke… I would destroy those who had thought to kill me.

Stealthily I attacked guards and stole weapons and armor. I donned it… covering my face and made my way into my general's home. I knew his wife would not have given me poison without his approval. I burst in on her and one of her young men in her bedchamber and dragged her off of him by her hair. I held my sword to her throat and bid her speak the truth. Why was I poisoned?

"Because your honor and name supersedes his. Because the people love you!" she whispered. To my everlasting shame, I believed her. "He sent me to you in secret, hoping to break in on us and act the injured husband. But when you would not have me… he sent you to your death. Yet you survived. Again and again he sent you out… but your fame grew. Finally he ordered me to publicly offer myself to you. If you took me as your right… by drinking the wine… you would die. He would be rid of you."

I cast her aside as something to be pitied and raced to my general's quarters. I did not listen to his cries of delight that I lived… I bade him take up arms and fight to the death, telling him I was not so easy to kill. He was no match for me. I killed him swiftly. His blood stained my hands.

My general's wife had roused the house guard and stood smirking behind them yelling how I'd betrayed my city, my general, my honor, and had murdered my friend in his sleep. I fought like a man possessed and took many of them down with me. Not for naught were the tales of my exploits in battle… nor my skill with the sword. In the end, it was by an arrow through my heart that I perished a second time. Again the hand that wielded the bow was that of my betrayer… my general's wife.

I woke next in a pit of bones and bodies, a place where traitors and criminals were thrown to be carrion for the predators. I had been stripped of armor and clothing and lay broken upon a rock. I roared my defiance… and swore vengeance to the gods. I called on Poseidon himself to aid me in my quest for vengeance.

I sped through the night… killing all who would stop me. I gave no thought to who they were. I became the monster in the darkness. I became that which I despised. I found her whom I sought and this time I did not listen to her cries. I dragged her to the pit where she'd had my body cast… and I killed her… and cast her naked form onto the bones below… and watched throughout the day with great satisfaction as ravens and jackals fed on her.

At some point in the night that followed, I came to realize that I no longer had a place in Thebes… and that if I were to understand what had happened to me… I would have to return home… to Niebos. Surely, I thought, My Lady would explain it all to me.

Over the years I'd often heard of the wonders of the oracle of Niebos. I'd kept its secrets and listened to others wax poetic about the oracle and the truth of her words. I would return there… climb the mountain along the pilgrim's path… and humbly ask my question.

My mind made up, I gathered the jewels I'd ripped from my murderer's body… sold them, and bought passage for Niebos.

Of that journey and the trials that occurred on it… I will not speak of here. Suffice it to say… I was tested time and again by sword… and I survived… not knowing why it was that men came at me for no reason… nor why I felt the power of the gods in my veins like living fire when these men were near. I did not know them as fellow immortals… I did not fully recognize that I had died and been reborn. In that time I saw it only as a gift from the gods that protected me until I could return to Niebos and ask the oracle my question. Understand… I had not yet taken a head… nor received a quickening… I had killed these men and moved on. Some of them… found me again… but that was later… after Niebos… and after I had learned what I was.

I landed at the docks… bought tribute with the last of my coins and climbed the steep path. The lines were long that day… the sun beat down on my head as if to blister it. I saw an old woman behind me in the line and shared my water with her. I saw a crippled boy… and carried him in my arms for a distance. I saw an old grandfather… and leant him my arm when his crutch broke. The lessons of humility and service that I had learned in my boyhood came back to me on that trek. By the time I reached the summit and saw the colonnades and porticos where once humble huts had stood… I was eager to make my presence known.

I wandered the summit of the mountain for hours, strolling through the temple complex… far more elaborate than what I remembered. It did not seem possible that it could have changed so much. Each time I passed a novice or priest, I scanned their faces seeking someone familiar. But I saw no faces of those I had once known. Finally… I joined those descending along the narrow crooked steps. I helped two young men handing down an aged parent bound to a stretcher. The old man had insisted that despite the beach path set aside for those unable to make the climb… that he would take his turn with the others.

From the heights I could see the oracle in the tide… and my heart leapt with joy. I felt that I had come home at last. Closer and closer I came until at last I stepped forward on the sandy beach… it was my time at last. I raised my arms and called to her. "What would you ask of me?"

She twisted in the sea-spray and replied. "Only what you ask of yourself."

I sank to my knees in the edge of the water and sobbed… casting my cloak over my head. Her answer did not satisfy me. I had thought long and hard on my question during the journey… and thought that I had phrased it well. But her answer left me empty. I knew nothing more than when I had started out.

Moments later I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see the face of Thalassa, she who'd first tended me when I was boy. "Nikos? Is that you?"

I cast my arms about her legs and sobbed… so happy was I to see someone whom I knew… and who knew me. It did not sink in until later… that Thalassa was now the oracle.

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Thalassa led me back to the summit and made me comfortable in one the rooms set aside for pilgrims who remained for a time in thanksgiving as penitents serving others. I slept as one dead, listening to the sounds of the ocean and the songs of the priests and novices. When I awoke, I smelled baking bread and the hot stews cooked in the great pots to ease the hunger of the pilgrims. I felt as if I'd at last come home.

Rising, I girded myself and strode about the complex attempting to see again the familiar in the new. I found Thalassa with several young women gathered about her as if in lessons. She looked up at me and smiled, dismissing the young women to other duties and motioned me to sit beside her. A novice brought food for both of us and while I ate, she told me of the passing of years.

"In the years after you left us… much tribute came as the wealthy of many cities came to the oracle and were pleased with her words. With their tribute… we built the complex you see now. Danaë warned us to be frugal in our building… that the tribute was meant to ease the pilgrims' way. So we built sturdy and strong… and did not adorn with useless carving… although some in their thankfulness came and carved, letting that be their gift to all. While we had stout rooms with which to shelter us from wind and elements… we did not have luxurious ones."

"And my lady? What became of her?"

Thalassa stared at me curiously. She slipped a hand within her gown and drew out a cameo. I have it still. See how the carver used the striations of the stone to give her a slight blush across her cheek. I've been told it is a work of art. And while a good likeness of my lady, it does not begin to show the depth of her smile. She seems rather solemn in this, as if deep in thought or remembrance.

Thalassa handed it to me that day. "Danaë said you would return. She told me to give you this. A penitent carved it for her in recent years. As you can see… in all the years that she was here… she did not age. There were those who thought she truly was akin to the gods. Danaë laughed at that. She told them that the gods were the powerful scions of the elements… and that she was only their servant."

I took the cameo in my hands, reverently caressing it with my fingers as I have done often over the centuries. "She is gone then?" I looked up to meet Thalassa's gaze. I think I was crying.

"During the last harvest, she took me down to the cove one night when there were no others about. For some reason there were no pilgrims. She showed me the secrets of the cove and how it was she appeared to stand on the waves and walk on the water. For years she had schooled me in seeing the pattern of the truth of the gods in all I saw. That night she showed me how moonlight and sunlight could reveal the truth in the spray. She bid me give this to you when you came, then she turned and headed out to sea… slowly sinking into the depths from which it was said she had once come."

"She knew," I whispered. She'd known that I had died… and been reborn. She'd known I'd entered the game… that I would come to her for the answers that she could not give me. She'd left. From what Methos and Eleanor have told me of the memories she shared with them… that were released in their union… I know that only a handful of immortals ever met her. She had passed beyond the game… and in caring for and placing the small ones in safety… had at last found some measure of peace for the crimes of her youth. She found pre-immortal children and as she did first with Methos and finally with Eleanor… the first and the last of her charges… she placed them on the path of the future. She settled them in homes and with parents who would cherish them and give them what she could not… a normal life.

But at the time, I only knew that she who might have answered my questions, had deserted me. I remained for some time on the island… seeking peace… but finding none. I needed to find answers. I thought perhaps that Danaë might be elsewhere, so I was determined to find her. In the end I took my leave of Niebos and would not see it again nor walk the path to the summit for well over three hundred years. By that time… I had entered the game.