-24-

Mist rolled in from the water, it's great gray blanket obscuring sight and entrapping sound. Niera shivered and it wasn't from the chill of the dawn, mist would never be the same for her. It would always hold... memories. Her eyes averting from the view outside Niera's gaze fell unto her arms. They would never look the same, angry red welts were already forming. By the time the wounds were finished healing they would be fearsome scars. Ever reminders of what had happened. Mercifully Niera's mind had blotted out much of what had happened that night. All that remained to her were dreams and flashes of memory. They were more than enough. The sounds of the army moving began to intensify as small black figures ran here and there, armour and weapons being handed out, men gathering at the morning meal, perhaps their last meal. Today Greek's Army marched, the majority of the leaders had finally been prevailed upon to fight, for why else had they come but to fight.

Niera had never been one to stomach debating or politics, she was straight-forward and liked to get to the point. She'd been around Achilles enough to know that a large part of the leader's time was spent arguing among one another. Thinking of Achilles Niera face closed in a puzzled look. She didn't know what to make of the man. Her first impression, which she usually stuck by, seemed to have gone astray. Achilles, since finding her, had been demonstrating an odd behavior of tolerance for her. Niera hated herself for allowing the man to see her cry and not just once, but several times when she'd woken with tears streaming down her face. At first Achilles had supposed her nightmares from that night with Agamemnon and his methods of questioning but later, listening to her mutter he gradually came to see that it was something else that troubled her so. Perhaps the reason for that shadow that always seemed to haunt the girl. He didn't know and he didn't question, the time was not right for that, if it ever would be.

Almost unconsciously Niera drew on her power, using it to touch the unlit lamp swinging above her head. Within bare seconds a pale flame flickered, it's orange tongues edged by an odd blue. Wherever she walked now men made the sign against evil, their eyes hastily averting. Niera was puzzled at first until Achilles had mentioned the reason for their behavior. "Over 30,000 men saw what you did that day." He'd told her and Niera had laughed, the first time in days. But her laughter was tinged with bitterness. It seemed to her that wherever she went, whatever time she lived in people thought her strange, avoiding her, not meeting her eye. The reasons weren't that different either, not at all. Closing her eyes Niera once again saw the flames, licking high into a frosty night, screams echoing and reechoing.

"It is never good to dwell on old evils."

Niera's eyes opened at Achilles voice.

"How did you know what I was thinking?"

She asked quietly, not really caring for the answer.

"I saw your face, the look. I've seen it many times. Men before their first battle, seeing death and knowing it for the first time."

Niera shrugged, to self-absorbed to be interested in any others woes. Achilles watching her was suddenly angered by her empathy, her carelessness. Did she think she was the only one to suffer on this earth? His voice sharpening he added.

"You child! You care nothing for others, you sit there and think of all that you've endured. You who haven't even faced the horrors of war. The blood, the stench, the overwhelming guilt that follows your first kill. You, a woman, know nothing of real pain!"

Niera's head swung to meet his angry gaze. Her face was expressionless as she answered softly...

"Real pain... Real pain?"

She paused, trying to gather her emotions that threatened to engulf her. Cold rage burned inside her.

"Let me show you what real pain is, Achilles."

Eyes suddenly glinting with a feverish light Niera leaned forward, reaching with her hands to place them on Achilles head.

"Oh yes, let me show you."

Like an unleashed wave she let forth her power, blue light wrapping the two figures in it's embrace. Through the blue a sudden picture was forming, growing larger and large until it surrounded them. It was night, a cold night, heavy snow blanketed the ground and Achilles watched as the familiar figure of Niera, looking somehow younger, walked along a path, dark trees forming a canopy overhead. Black smoke rose into the sky from somewhere ahead and Achilles watched as Niera's step quickened, her face tightening with sudden concern. Several more feet and loud reports could be heard, almost as if Zeus himself had let loose a thunderbolt. The girl broke out into a clearing, and sudden heat waves made their way across the ground. There in front of Niera stood an immense structure, a house? It was almost unrecognizable by the searing flames that tore it apart. Blackened and charred the roof was caving in but it was not on the house that the girls' eyes were directed. Not forty feet from her were the dark shapes of people, several figures were slumped to the ground in a position by which Achilles already knew them to be dead. He watched as a man drew a knife plunging it into the body of a resisting woman, her face somehow familiar. A scream sounded then, a hoarse yell that tore through the air with such life of it's own that Achilles shrank from it. It was Niera. And then just as suddenly the men killing began to writhe, their bodies jerking in an uncontrolled fit, their faces twisted into looks of agonized pain. It was then that Achilles looked back to Niera. She was standing, feet apart, her hands upraised as a blow glow surrounded her. She was killing them he realized, slowly, painfully.

The picture was shrinking, fading, until with a jolt Achilles was back, back on the shoreline, the murmur of the ocean in his ears. Niera was sitting across from him, as if she'd never moved, her breath coming in shuddering gasps. Tears were trickling slowly down her face.

"It was my family."

She whispered, her voice hoarse with grief.

"They killed them all, butchered them, their limbs were torn from their bodies. Even the youngest, she was four. And so I killed them, gave them deaths far worse than what they'd given to my family. And for that... For paying them back for what'd they done I was punished. The rest of my family hated me, I was charged for their murder, for the murder of those men. My relatives, they knew something was wrong with me. They avoided me, they were afraid of me and hated me because I made them feel the way they did."

Niera drew another breath, lost in her recollation.

"I was angry, I gave them nightmares, I tortured their every thought. I think in the end they knew what I was doing. Several went mad, they had to be sent to an asylum. I wasn't sorry though."

Niera glanced at Achilles.

"Do I not know real pain?"