Sorry I've taken forever to update. Anyways here's the next chapter and I pinky promise that I shall update very soon. I hope you guys enjoy it. Thanks for reading.
We had indeed succeeded in our passage north. We had traveled through Thessaly to get to Macedonia in a journey that lasted nearly six months. We traveled over mountains, through obscure forests made darker by the lack of sunlight, we crossed rivers, encountered many creatures of the gods both good and evil. Some we fought and others helped us through the perilous journey. According to Hermes the journey was one of nearly six lunar cycles in duration. Then we reached the city of Pharsalus.
I remember approaching Pharsalus with Hermes by my side, both of us riding our horses. The closer I came to Pharsalus, the more agitated I became. It was the agitation born from knowing something but being unable to find the means to stop it. Upon entering Pharsalus, I knew that I would refuse to leave the city. I felt certain that Ares was close. I felt it in my very bones, in my very being. I had that feeling of almost touching him. It was like a night terror in which you are running towards safety. It is a truth born within you that sanctuary is but a breath away, yet despite how much you run, you can never reach it. I felt Ares here, but despite how many times I wandered the streets or how many humans or immortal beings I asked nobody knew a single thing about him.
It had been nearly a lunar year since the Aloade had taken Ares and six months since I've dreamt of him. If I think of him now, I remember his height, his powerfully corded muscles, the length of his legs; the strength of his shoulders, but many things had begun to fade from my human memory. When I closed my eyes and thought of Ares, I could no longer capture the exact shade of his flame-colored locks, or his grass-green eyes. His body in my arms was simply a memory now. A memory I clung to and cherished, but one that had began to fade. But the most terrifying feeling did not derive from my fading recollections, but from the days in which I have woken to think that everything was but a dream. That what we had, and I so desperately clung to was not real, that I was simply a deluded human.
Thus when I continued desperately searching for Ares, I told myself that I hoped to find him not so that he would fill the gap within me, but so that the world could be restored to its natural order.
But upon the calendar marking a year and summer giving way to a brisk and cold fall, I had simply lost all hope. I knew he was close, but there was no lead. No treasured hint that steered us closer to Ares. There was guilt in my heart, for I could not help but to feel that I and only I, am to be solely blamed for the world spinning astray. Though I told myself that I sought Ares because he could save humanity, there were times I simply could not lie to myself. I could not repress that in truth I no longer cared for humanity and that single thought brought forth more conflicts than cared to admit. Since Trabzon has fallen I did not have a place amongst humans, my only place was in the arms of Brennus, of Ares. It was the single time in the past years where I had felt truly happy. Deep within me I knew that I sought him for selfish reasons. But I am human after all and in the grander scale, not much is expected from us.
Though I clung furiously to the glimmer of hope, the search had taken a toll on me. I was frustrated, angry, raging against the world. For six months this city of strangers had led me to nothing but this titanic feeling of helplessness.
Hermes, the valiant and consoling god sat across from me as I drank my second tankard of ale. I had come to the Blue Siren, an ill-reputed tavern in the darker side of the city in attempt to drink until I collapsed. I was too tired to care of the dangers other than humans that now lurked freely in the shadows. Thus I came to Blue Siren tonight by myself it was not long until Hermes quietly entered the tavern and sat across from me, simply watching me wearily. I lifted my brow and dared him to comment on the inadequacy of being here. But Hermes being the saint that he was, simply sighted.
I disregarded him completely, for I was miserable and if he was not as miserable as I, then what good was he. He did not say a single word as I motioned the barmaid to bring me a second drink, and then later a third. When I finished the third drink, I laid my head upon the rough wooden table.
I heard the soft rasp of the chair against the ground and assumed Hermes had grown tired of watching my recklessness and was about to give me a good tongue-lashing and take me home.
"I'll return shortly." I heard Hermes say. He placed his hand on my shoulder and upon realizing that he would obtain no further acknowledgement from me other than a grunt, he left to do whatever the hell he was to do. I did not raise my head from the table.
I was not feeling so miserable when I heard the voices.
"Gods do not care about humans. We 're nothin' but fat sheep to 'em, I swear. World 'as gone upside 'own and 'ere we are sufferin' while they probably eat fat goats" The voice was slurring with drink.
"Aye, but 'tis likely Ares is to blame, bastard is probably laughing while we-"
I stood abruptly, knocking my chair on the ground, turning to see who was speaking of Ares. The two men were sitting on a table next to my own. When I stood and turned to them, one of them stared at me and winked. The other smiled.
I felt a smile spread over my lips and then I was walking towards them. When I reached their table I spread my palms against the table and leaned over to them. There were two men, one with fair hair and bright eyes and the other darker with a strong brows and pale eyes.
"You offend the god of war?" I asked.
The dark-haired man simply laughed and said. "He could rot in a bronze jar, for all I care. Gods have never done anything for me. But let us not talk of gods, sweetheart, I've enough of their animals walking amongst us." His voice was more cultured than his companion.
I leaned in closer to him, so very close our noses nearly touched. I felt his breath fan across my face, the faint smell of wine threaded upon it.
I eyed the man before me. He had short dark hair that stood on his head as if he had just awoken and aqua colored eyes. He was a handsome man of perhaps thirty springs, with soft sensuous lips. As I assessed the man before me I felt a sudden surge of lust. Perhaps it was the ale that had clouded my senses but I was lusting after the man. Something within me yearned to take a human man to my bed, to attempt to forget the god I had fallen in love with. I wanted to fall in love with him and prove myself that I did not love Ares, that because he was my first I was simply infatuated with him. I hoped that if I had a taste of another man, perhaps then I'd come to miraculously realize that I did not love Ares. That he was simply an infatuation. That when I found him he would be able to restore Olympus to its rightful owners and that then I could part with him because in truth we had no destiny together.
With a torment of thoughts tearing me apart I reached for the man, my hand threading through his short hair on the back of his head and my mouth descended upon his tenderly. Our lips moved against each other. I heard his friend clear his throat and I released my hold on his hair and moved away from him more miserable than I had been upon entering the tavern. For though I had lusted after him for a brief second, no emotions rose with in me except guilt that I had betrayed Ares with this brief kiss. For all that he was an attractive handsome man, I simply felt nothing for him. There was no curiosity as I felt when I met Brennus, no quickening of the heart I felt by even standing before Brennus, before Ares.
I wondered then as I wondered many times during this dreadful year, why the fates had set such grieves upon my life.
The dark haired man smiled a dazzling dimpled smiled that did nothing to me but brought tears to my eyes. I was so tired of fighting, of living, of searching. Tired of it all.
"Forgive me." I said to the man.
"Nothing to forgive, sweetheart." He replied.
I felt an arm around my waist and soft words against my ear.
"You're drunk, love. Let us go home." Hermes said, always the good man. He turned me around to face him.
"My apologies if she's your woman, I meant no harm." I heard the dark-haired man say and Hermes simply nodded.
"I shall take you home." He said.
"Not yet. I want more ale…Ares drinks ale. I shall buy him some ale."
"We must go, Liah. People have started to stare, despite the chaos in the world, it is strange to find a women drunk amongst men in a tavern." His eyes were soft and blue, generous and patient as always.
We left the tavern and walked slowly along the torch lit streets, his hand around my waist. I was nearly sleeping on my feet when I heard the urgent sound of sandals against the cobblestones. I opened my eyes to see a slender shape running towards us. Hermes stopped as if he knew the person and I leaned my head on his shoulders too tired and drunk to care of anything.
She was a beautiful woman of perhaps forty springs, with dark curls and dark eyes. But there was an urgency in her eyes, in her stance as she looked around that made me stand a bit straighter and open my eyes a bit more.
"Hermes." She said eying the god. Then her eyes turned towards mine and I did not know what to make of the look she gave me. Pity or sympathy? Her eyes made me feel incredibly sober, aware of everything around me.
"Are you his woman?" She asked me in a voice of awe. When she saw the confusion on my face she continued. "Ares' human?"
"You are." She said, answering her own question after gazing in my face.
"Eriboea." Hermes voice held question.
"Yes. I've been searching for you and Liah." She whispered the words and looked over her shoulders searchingly. "May we go somewhere private, I bear important news."
"Who are you?" I asked, for it seems that Hermes and Eriboea were acquainted.
"I shall tell you everything you wish to know, but let us go elsewhere."
"I do doubt so." I said under my breath. And elsewhere we went.
I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think : )