SHATTERING OF THE SILVER LIGHT
I stand and watch the head healer and his two apprentices from the doorway the person has been moved to the healing quarters. It's been four long hours and the sun is now going up in the sky. I'm very tired now, I can feel it in my bones, I should go and sleep and yet I can't there are two many unanswered questioned and they are plaguing my mind. I've watched them work tirelessly cleaning and washing this person they've had to cut all the hair away leaving the only part that was any good very short. It was so mattered and dreadlocked that there was nothing else that could be done. The body was cleaned and washed, finally revealing the gender which is female.
She's a young woman in her mid twenties from the look of things, they've also had to feed her water very slowly and only as much as she can handle. She is so weak that she can't even hold or lift a water skin. The hair colour is sun light blonde but the eye colour is still unknown and the room she in has been put in to darkness because she needs to shown light very slowly or it will damage her eyes. If her eyes can still see that is, because no one is really sure right now, all that is know is that she was in that pit for a long very long time her condition shows that. They've dressed her in a simple white robe which is easy to take on and off and put her in a warm bed. She's been in out of consciousness and it seems very clear to me that if she lives the night its going to be a long and painfully process for her in terms of getting well.
They will no doubt start her off on a diet similar to that of a gladiator in Rome which will be a barley rich porridge in small amounts which will help her put on weight. I honestly don't recognise this young woman but even the low light I can tell she has one very prominent feature on her lower right eyebrow which is a deep scar. It's old and long healed but it stands out as it was clearly made by a weapons blade. Maybe the tip of a sword or a knife blade but it's a very odd thing to see, maybe I say this because I'm used to seeing scars on warriors like myself. My body is a patch work off old scars from battle but this woman doesn't look like a warrior, she's small in stature and about half my height.
A petite blonde who right now looks very fragile in my mind, who is she? What is her name and where did she come from? I did not order for anyone to put down in that pit and I know now that someone will pay for this dearly for her suffering. This is why I don't trust anyone even in my own palace because I know things like this happen with out my consent. It's not the first time I've had one of my governors stealing from coffers before now and using it to please himself and not my people. I was angry then and I'm just as angry now that this starving woman was put down that pit for such a long time with out anyone knowing. No wonder the guards said it was haunted down there.
They couldn't have known that those screams were the screams of a woman crying out in the darkness for help. Or maybe she was crying out of insanity, I have no idea what that can do to a person. Being alone like that in the darkness having no where to relive yourself but the pit around you, it's disgusting to think that someone could suffer for so long like that. Some one must have been feeding her though since she was around this long, she was clearly there for a purpose. It just seemed that in these past weeks they lost interest. The food and water bowls were empty clearly someone wanted her to die down there in that darkness. I just wish she could speak maybe then she could tell me who did this to her.
I watch as Phantasos comes forward his long white and red robes swaying as he put his hand through his short white beard and white hair, he's in his forties and has been my royal healer ever since he saved my life four years ago in Rome. An arrow pieced me just above the chest on the battle field and if it weren't for him I would have died, he's the best at what he does and I trust his loyalty. I watch as he comes to stand next to me his eyes darting before he speaks. "Well if she survives the night then theirs hope for her, we've done everything we can. All we can do is keep feeding her and giving her water, she's young she might pull through." I fold my arms leaning against the door frame I've always liked his honestly, he never sugar coats anything.
I look up slowly before speaking. "Did she have anything to say who she was?" Phantasos breathed in deeply. "Well yes and no." He pulled out a leather woven chain which was quite thick and very long but not heavy. Its symbol was made of bone and was some sort of dragon or worm with red jewelled eyes eating its tail. "We couldn't see this under the dirt and mess she had it in her hand." Xena took the symbol looking at it for a long moment she recognised it, but she hadn't seen it in over ten years. "It's Ouroboros the ancient dragon god who is forever eating its tail he or she is meant to symbolize eternal recreation. This is an old god, much older than Greek gods or so they say." She looked at the symbol. "I thought though that no one worshipped this god anymore."
Phantasos raised an eyebrow. "Well she does and this pendent means a lot to her, she tried to close her hand when we found it, to stop us taking it. Clearly for her a half starving woman at deaths door this holds a lot of meaning for her, only those who truly value their symbols ever stop you taking them on the battle field when their close to death." Xena looked at the symbol before handing it back to him. "Let her have it back she'll need to for the coming weeks ahead of her." Phantasos nodded looking up slightly. "I understand I'll put it around her neck." He breathed in deeply. "What are you going to do now?" Xena put a hand on her face. "I'm going to go and get some rest then I'm going to find out who this woman is."
She turned sharply as the sound of hard boots smacking the ground hit the air she turned watching as Demetrius appeared. In essence he was the closest thing she had to a friend, though they had never really acted as friends despite that he had served with her before her marriage. After she'd returned to Greece he had once again wanted to serve under her and she had made him head of her army. Demetrius was in his late thirties with short black hair and a short black beard he had a long woven braid in his hair which hung over his shoulder. He was tall well muscled man with dark brown eyes who was the same height as she was. He was dressed in his full hoplite armour which was silver plated on both the chest plate and gauntlets.
He wasn't married but then nether was Phantasos not that she ever asked much about ether of their personal lives. She preferred to stay at a distance and always be formal with both of them. Demetrius breathed in deeply. "Empress I heard about what happened, how is the young woman doing?" Xena looked up slightly. "If she lives through tonight it'll be a long time before she gets well again." Demetrius adjusting one of his gauntlets as he looked up. "I did not know of any prisoner who was put down one of the pits the royal guard know the rules no one is allowed to put prisoners in that area." Xena looked in to the dark room again. "I know that you're not to blame for this but some one is, some one put her down there to die."
She folded her arms. "I need you to do something for me." Demetrius eased up his horse hair helmet. "What do you wish of me Empress?" Xena looked at the young woman again. "I need you to go to Chara and Phrixus and see if they can find anything in the records about this woman and who she is." Demetrius nodded. "Of course I'll see what I can do." Phantasos snorted. "If you see Chara tell her that she owes me three dinars." Demetrius rolled his eyes. "You know I am head of the royal guard not a messenger boy." Phantasos smirked. "Oh yes I know that, but I would be grateful." Demetrius shook his head. "Fine I'll do so, what was your bet over now?"
Phantasos felt his smile widen. "It's over whether or not Phrixus can work out of any words on that werewolf scroll he's got locked up in the study?" Demetrius grunted aloud. "No one can work out what that monsters parchment says all he can decipher are the odd sketches and that it, I expected more." Xena looked at them both for a long moment, she knew what they were talking about over four years ago she had found a scroll in a ruined temple in the Arcadia region. It was a monumental find the only one of its kind, a scroll revealing the history of the werewolf race. A scroll written in their own language which no one could yet decipher.
It was in essence a messed up version of the Greek language which didn't make much sense. It made even less sense since werewolves were monsters who killed people and had caused nothing but trouble for many years in Greece. She'd sent out an order to have them all hunted down and killed. Werewolf pelt was a high prized item on the Greek market as were their claws teeth and skulls. She'd first seen a werewolf in Rome when she'd been married to Julius Caesar. It had been brought in to an arena to fight four gladiators on a special night showing she had never seen anything so violent and brutal in her life.
It had torn the first gladiators head clean off and then ripped the others insides out, it was pure animal, pure rage, pure instinct. With out mercy or fear of death and even when the heavy armoured Murmillo had brought down the huge monster it had still ripped off both his arms. This only gladiator left the retiarius with his tall spear and net had finally finished the job. It was enough to make even her feel real fear Minotaur's and satyrs are intelligent and could speak but not werewolves they didn't speak at all. They had no humanity and they had no human form and little if anything was known about them. So to find a scroll like this one was a contradiction in every way.
To think that these monsters had a culture or even written word seemed shocking, it had caused so many arguments between the scribes of Athens who were desperate to see this scroll. She'd refused them all that privilege because first she wanted her best scribe to look at it personally and confirm that it was written by werewolves and not humans writing werewolf history. Personally she thought it was human's writing werewolf history she doubted that those monsters could hold a quill in their paws. Claws like theirs were for tearing man a sunder. She confessed that she have one of these monsters stuffed and mounted in the visitors study. It's more a show piece but it always turned heads, the royal guests were always in awe.
More because they all know how much trouble they cause I how many people they've killed and how they always attack at night. They've seen the blood and the bodies and the dying on the ground, men women children and they all asked that I enforce the werewolf hunting law and I did so with out question. For every werewolf that's killed fifty dinars are paid per head, or skull the body is there's to do what they want with. Normally its hacked up the pelts is sold and the claws and skulls become trophies. For the eccentric the blood is sold and used in medicine and for those who border on the unique and believe in such things, the heart and meat are sold for cooking and eating as some believe it will give them great strength.
I've never par taken in any of that but my trophy is enough to make my point clear I want these monsters to stop terrorizing my people and killing them. Even I find that scroll difficult to fathom but then who wouldn't. The world is full of contractions and strange things which make no sense or have no truth. She looked up meeting Demetrius's gaze. "I'm going to bed take care of this for me." Demetrius nodded calmly. "Yes Empress." Xena turned towards the corridor before meeting Phantasos concerned gaze. "When I wake up give me an update on how the young woman is doing?" Phantasos nodded looking up slightly. "Of course Empress." She walked away from the both of them she was so tired it had been a long night and she should be in some stupid meeting tomorrow. Probably the only perk of owning a land is that people have to wait on you at the end of a day. So they would have to wait on her tomorrow until she was ready and had got enough sleep.
End of part 2
Silvermoonlight