By: Sheiado
Author's Note: Thank you to all my reviewers 'cause I probably would've stopped writing this if I didn't get as much feedback and encouragement as I get from you guys! LOL. I hope this is long enough. Well, if not you guys got a choice between 1) Quicker and Shorter chapter or 2) Longer to post and Lengthy chapter. That'd mean you'll probably be waiting an extra week for a new chapter (I somehow don't think ppl would want that...). And I know I'm more eager to post asap... but that's just little 'ol me speakin'...
Chapter Four: Despairing
The ways of men, their ambitions and acts of societal corruption, were truly becoming a very frightening and grotesque reality. Briseis despised greed, corruption, and enslavement. She despised it because it did naught but ruin innocent lives. Enslavement was a practice, a tradition commonly used as a way of life among human beings of varying lands. But this practice and its purpose of dominance deserved to be brought upon no one. It was a very solitary lifestyle. A life lived trapped inside a lonesome cage.
The cage still had her trapped and locked inside of it like a captured bird but this time, there was a hungry cat prodding it and waiting oustside of its enclosed territory with calculating viciousness. Briseis saw herself as the bird and her new master, Lord Creceden, as the cat. She knew she would meet him soon and it provoked nothing but fear and dread insde of her. By Apollo, she needed help!
She prayed to the god that protected her homeland and family, the god that she embodied as being sympathetic and protective of his mortal followers. She needed help and so sought for divine protection when physical ones were naught to spare. Hector could not help nor soothe her fears as he once did when they were but young children. She was alone. Alone and regretful that she had not taken back her spite and prideful words from her cousin. She was thinking only of unhappiness and marriage and so misery deemed her worthy, for it came down upon her swiftly ten fold. She wished only to return to her family and become Briseis of Troy once again... but wishing for such things had never really gotten her anywhere before.
Lying alone in her cot within her new master's kingdom, Briseis cried herself to sleep. Her thoughts rarely took toward a tragic direction but she felt suffocated, utterly smothered, as she realized how trapped she had finally allowed herself to become. She would not remain a maiden for long in this enviornment, she was branded and therefore useless to her own family. She would be ashamed for the eyes of Trojans would follow her with mockery and laughter and not even her own god, Apollo, would have use for her. Living in Troy would never be the same again. She would live a life under the intense, disdainful, and uncomfortable scrutiny of others. Having experienced the burden of enslavement would prevent her from living her life to the fullest. She would not marry, have children, gain her own lands, or even have the option of becoming a priestess, all of which most members of royalty often took for granted.
Salty tears dried into a slow, sticky stream down the slopes of her soft cheeks and as fatigue washed away the dreariness from within her heart, Briseis, found herself in the midst of another world....
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In a swamp, dark and murky, was where she stood. She was small, about five years of age, but her appearance held similarities which expanded to her adult years. Her dark curls hung loosely around her, tumbling to her back, and clung to her damp cherub-shaped cheeks. Her full lips twisted into a tight frown as her large eyes, soft as a doe's, fell to her feet.
She was trapped, not knowing how to swim, and waist length in deep, polluted waters. The situation became terrifying all too soon and Briseis' eyes widened as she felt the wet, mushy ground begin to waste away from beneath her feet. She cried out in panic as her body began to sink, her arms flailing and her fingers clawing. She could find nothing to hold onto!
Her head was barely above water as she screamed for the last time and a burning sensation soon replaced the air in her lungs as water slowly began to suffocate her. Darkness settled and extinguished her light, diminishing breath and all vision. Everything became stillness and silence and Briseis struggled no more. In her moments end, believing death had finally come for her, she scarcely felt the hands that grasped and pulled her to safety.
Her back laid on land, soft and pleasantly mushy, that smelled distinctly like sea salt and fish. Light penetrated through the back lids of her eyes and as she opened them, she caught the most incredible shade of blue.
The sun was blocked by a golden head and orbs of pure glistening sapphire. They were beautiful eyes, so rare, full of life, and alluring in a way that Briseis could not understand nor explain. he stared at her curiously for the longest time until Briseis asked, "Who are you?"
The boy frowned at the question and then his eyes gave a hard stare as she sat up, noticing that she was sitting on a beach. "I saved you. You should be telling me who you are."
Briseis was as young as the golden boy at her side. How did a boy so young in appearance manage to drag her body out of the water and swim to safety? Not noticing the boy's hostility and cold stare, she answered, "I am Briseis and I am lost."
"Yes you are," the boy answered knowingly. He was old for his years. "For now. Soon you will no longer be."
"What do you mean?"
"The sea takes and the sea gives. Takes lives, it will do but it will also give life. It will direct you, fear not, lost one."
"Are you a God?" Briseis found herself asking. Her eyes, seemingly far too big for her round face, stared up at him with barely hidden curiousity. A deity can take any form that they choose to reveal themselves with to a mortal, no matter what age and appearance of innocence. The boy felt familiar to her and his presence was almost comforting. Surely, only a god would choose such a golden and alluring apparition?
"No. I am apart of you, your future and, to an extent, your past. I am what you know naught of yet. And as to my name, I've come by many with you. Lives before this life. This is a message sent to you for guidance by your own inner self..."
"This dream...?"
"Dreams are sent by mortals themselves and naught by the Gods that they pray to. You already know that though, My Lady." The boy suddenly smiled cryptically. His eyes and the way they bore into her, like he knew her own soul, made her shift uneasily upon the rough, scorching sand. "You know more than you really think you do."
The rippling, roaring waves of the sea suddenly intensified, its sound reverberating so loud around her that she could barely hear anything more of what the boy was saying. The sky, what used to be a matching shade of the boy's bright eyes, suddenly turned stormy and dreary. "It won't get any easier, but going forward all depends on you."
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She was awakened by Lalianes, her bunk mate and fellow house servant, at the crack of dawn. Today was to be her first working day as a worker in the gardens and so, she was to be shown around the workers' quarter of the palace. Lalianes was a quiet girl, shy but not timid, and the trait sometimes had weak defenses when one began to start friendly conversation with her. She seemed the type to speak only when spoken to. She was as young as Briseis herself was with long, chesnut hair, gray eyes, and tanned skin baked from Apollo's scorching sun. Her appearance reminded Briseis of Andromanche, only not quite possessing the famous beauty of the trojan princess.
They spent an hour walking through the many quarters and gardens that they were to work in. To make sure that Briseis didn't get completely lost, Lalianes even showed her ways through the kitchens, bathing rooms, and worker sleeping areas. The tour and beginning familiarity gave Briseis more confidence... at least to go only a little ways outside of her room. She still knew very little and would have need to learn the whole palace within time.
What most would find odd, Briseis understood by reasoning and experince. Lalianes purposely avoided the main hall. She did it not out of courteousy, but out of fear. She seemed to have caught on to the watchful gazes that Briseis gave her and so she turned, whispering quietly, "Avoid the main hall. It is best that way. The less attention gained by the Lord of the house here, the better. After he buys slaves, he soon forgets about them. If he sees you, being beautiful and bought by him, he will remember and summon for you. You will only have to cross the main hall if summoned... and that happens only nightly."
"Nightly? How do you know?"
The girl gazed at her, her eyes stormy, full of raw vulnerability and pain. "It has happened only once to me and I wish naught for it again. I'd sooner die."
"I'm sorry," Briseis whispered, her heart going out to the woman, "I did not quite understand. I didn't mean to bring up something so painful for you."
"It is painful," Lalianes agreed, "but no one dared to tell me anything when I came here. I believe it to be wrong for no one to warn others of such a cruel man. No one deserves the treatment he gives. I sometimes fear working in the gardens but I try to hide whatever beauty given to me by the gods well. He won't find hideousness attractive."
Briseis nodded.
"You are so far one of the prettiest girls here," Lalianes complimented sadly, "You would do well to try and hide it."
"I shall take the advice," Briseis agreed, "Thank you."
"Tis nothing but a warning of precaution, My Lady Briseis."
Maen-Briseis! Her eyes snapped to her in astonishment at the utterance of her birth name. Eyes wide, she asked, "How do you know who I am?"
The girl smiled sadly, an almost secret smile. "A woman that works in the kitchens, Mylana, saw you upon the night of your arrival here. Do not fret for she only told me and no one else. She is very trustworthy and almost like a mother to me. She used to be a trojan."
"She comes from Troy?"
"Aye. -And used to work as a maid in the house of your uncle, Lord Priam," She cut in shortly. "She said it was you because any child of Lady Nemertes and Lord Briseus she would recognize. She knew your mother well."
Briseis stopped walking and looked at her. "I wish to speak with her when I can, Lalianes, can you arrange it?"
Lalianes nodded. "I shall try.... but, in the meantime, I must show you what work awaits you in the gardens."
More to come soon! Please read and review!
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Well, I tried to get it long (1800 words).... anywaz, I hope you guys have enjoyed . Maybe one of these days I can manage out a really long chapter! LOL. grin . The story is progressing but I'll get there eventually (well, I'm not going by the movie here! LoL). Anyway, keep the reviews comin'!