Morning in Tritia

Matea stood up from her bed at the crack of dawn, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and began to prepare for the day. She was now in her late twenties, only married once before she became a widow, and choose a different life. She became a priestess to the goddess of love as repayment for the short love she once had for her late husband.

As a priestess of Aphrodite, she had much to do. Since Tritia has the nicest temple to Aphrodite in the area they got many visitors from surrounding villages. Especially from Dimitis given the short distance between them having a shrine to Aphrodite did not make sense to them because if they needed or wanted to make an offering they could come here. She dressed and made her mind ready for the day.

She exited her room and went into the temple after a few moments she noticed something was off. There a noticeable line of ash on the floor. It started at one end in the center of the temple, and at that end was a word written in ash. The word was seen to be as, " Ακολουθηστε" and the priestess spoke in confusion, "Follow?". Her investigation began to lead the priestess out of the temple.

She was lucky to be literate her husband had taught her before he died. He had been kinder than any man she had ever met. Most women weren't allowed to learn to read, but her status gave her enough lea way to justify it now that her husband was gone.

Not that it was fair she had to justify it in her opinion, she was taught by her husband. She couldn't just unlearn it. But that was not what she was thinking about at that moment. As Matea left the temple to follow the ash trail she was instead thinking of what was happening.

Soon she found herself in the nearby grove of trees that were close to the temple. Following the line further, she found the end of the trail. It read, "Ρωτήστε τον Διμιτις" and she muttered as she looked at the words. "Ask Dimitis? What?" she looked up and found an odd stone that appeared to be shaped by human hands.

For there is no possible way in her mind that this could be natural in any form. The priestess observed it closely. After a few minutes, she retreated and began to move back to the temple with a bit of haste in her step. 'What is going on, gods guide me?'

Once she was back in the temple she began to think, 'Dimitis, ask Dimitis. What does that even mean? Do I send word for the town as a whole to respond to or can any resident tell me?' In her hurried thoughts, she almost began to pace in place.

After a minute of thought, she decided, 'I should ask people from Dimitis about this, even if they don't know it is faster to check.' With that in mind, the servant of Aphrodite sent out from the temple. No sooner had she stepped out, a worshipper was at the entrance of the place of worship.

"You there." the priestess spoke as the man in question looked around for a moment before silently asking in gestures if she was referring to him, "Yes, you. Tell me, is there anyone from Dimitis within the town today, or coming later? It is important I speak with someone from Dimitis."

The man seemed slightly confused, "Ah no, ma'am I don't know if anyone is coming from there today. But you might be able to find a few fishermen from yesterday staying with their fellows. Beyond that, I do not know." he seemed a bit nervous now.

Clearly, the issue was important to their resident priestess. "I see, can you send for someone to fetch anyone from Dimitis and tell them to come here?" The man had simply come to pray, but he could not think of a reason to deny a servent of any honoured god.

"Yes, right away ma'am" the man turned around and began to speak with a few others asking where to find any people from Dimitis. When asked why he was looking for them he said it was a requisition from the priestess. This gave decent enough reason even if unclear.

Matea on her end began to busy herself with the temple's care, her mood one of worry. Her morning duties quickly, almost hurriedly taken care of. After about half an hour of frantic cleaning and maintaining she the man she had sent off a few people beside him.

"Priestess, this man is a fisherman from Dimitis who was staying with his friend and his wife." the man introduced the two other men and the women. Seeing this she nodded and motioned for them to follow as she spoke.

"Excellent, good fisherman, even if you can not help me I thank you for coming." the group of four moved into the temple. The priestess pointed to the start of the trail, "There is an odd trail here which has been made of ash and labelled with words that I found this morning. It says to follow them." she spoke more as the group followed her out of the other temple entrance.

They moved into the trees, "At the other end of this line of ash is words that say 'ask Dimitis.' I believe my sending for you is understandable now, even if you do not have my answers.' as she said this she turned and spoke to the man from Dimitis.

Once they reached the rock the man spoke, "I, oh…" recognition seemed to spark in the man's eyes. The group looked at him as he spoke, "I, uh. I am not sure where to start to explain this." He pointed towards the white, black, and grey shrine.

"So you do understand this? Or at least recognize it?" Matea spoke and the man nodded, his companions seemed to be pleased the trip to the temple hadn't been for not. Then again, it was likely not just seemingly true but was.

"The center symbol and the two colours bear a striking resemblance to the symbol that was put into the ground of our market two days ago." this caught the attention of the whole group. The man's friend spoke.

"Wait weren't you telling us about that yesterday. The morning before you came to work yesterday there were some spiritual happenings that drew the attention of the whole town?" the friend and their tone were concerned, the priestess was even more so.

The man shook his head, "At first the village thought the ash and drawings to be the work of an evil spirit. But when we called on our priest he attempted to excise it. But the being formed a body of smoke from the burning incense our priest used." yet more perry filled the group at his words, though he continued.

"It stopped his blade and our hunters' arrows. It had us all sit. Then it sang," surprise filled the priestess, his friend, the wife, and the messenger. "Its voice almost sounded like a women's. And its song was like a lullaby in some foreign barbarian language. Then after it was done it was silent and the smoke was gone, no one understood what was happening."

The priestess while more relaxed now was still disturbed, "It then spoke its voice was neither man nor women. When it spoke it had told us not known our language, and that made it try and gain our attention so as to gain our belief."

The others listened with rapt attention, "Which somehow lead to it gaining a way to speak Hellenika. Apparently, it claimed to be a god. It listed off a lot of foreign titles, but what stuck in my mind was its first title. It called itself 'The Machine God', it also claimed to be a god of knowledge and obviously machines."

Matea finally cut in, "You are certain it was a god?" her worry had not lowered merely changed from an evil spirit to divine smiting.

The man nodded, "I am getting there but yes. The god called itself the guide and guardian of humanity. And their goal was to help humanity through their works. It said it had recently awoken near where it believed its center of worship to be in the future."

The friend spoke, "It believed, did the god not know?"

The man responded to fill in details, "It said that it had lost most of its omniscience. Which made sense because it was completely unfamiliar with any other gods. It had not even heard of the Olympians." That last sentence seemed to drive home how odd this was.

"It claimed to be a god of knowledge?" the wife asked.

"Yes, though if it could learn a whole new language without any direct worship, offerings, or sacrifices. Then I do not know what it could know if it got those. I suppose if it truly has good intentions we shall see change for the better." the man looked at the shrine.

"What happened next, the whole town was gathered how did it end?" the priestess of Aphrodite asked lessened concern now that her worries were assuaged.

The man shrugged, "The god asked to speak with our priest Korban alone after he told us to go back to our day's tasks. I left very early yesterday morning. I do not know what this," he again pointed to the shrine, "means, perhaps something happened yesterday that I missed. That is all I know, priestess."

The woman put her hand to her chin and looked at the shrine, the cog seeming to burn into her eyes as she stared at it intensely. 'This answers some of my questions, but the answers bring more questions. What do I do now?'

01100011 01101000 01100001 01101110 01100111 01100101

That morning in Dimitis

Dimitis came back into view as the sun began to peek over the horizon. A few people were awake, 'Tritia should likely see our shrine, and when they do. The word shall spread, attention shall be drawn and the groundwork will have been prepared for us.'

They moved to their chapel and entered, the deity removed the sliding board from the side of the table and retrieved both items. Their cloak formed a body, their cargo held out of sight within the robes. The board was slid back into place and they moved.

No one was at either their own chapel or the altars of the other gods. Once on the move, they began to go towards those altars. They had seen the god that each was dedicated to, their images came to mind as they looked and thought.

Korban's own personally crafted altar to Athena stood unchanged, the many symbols of her worship etched onto its surface. Including owls, just as the token they carried now showed the stylized owl of Athena so did her altar.

The Machine God moved away from the place of worship and towards the outer part of town, which included Korban's home. The dirt path which threaded between there and the altars was their only companion on the short journey to said house.

Dawn was now in full swing, and the trinity 'stood' at Korban's door. After quickly extending their senses so as to see if the man was awake yet. They were rewarded with the knowledge that he was in fact awake. The lord of Mars summoned minor strength and hit the priest's door in order to knock.

A voice came from within, "A moment if you please." after about twenty seconds the priest opened the door and came face to cloak with the deity. "Oh, what a surprise, Omnissiah. How are you this morning? Ah please come in." he motioned into his house.

"We are well, tell us Korban. Was there anything on your mind you didn't get the chance to ask yesterday that you wish to now? You were not silent but you seemed to only ask questions related to what we had said then." the door closed and the priest thought for a moment.

"Well, I suppose I have a question I had put off for a while. Just something I would like confirmation on." the robes nodded and motioned with the arm for Korban to speak. "If you are a god of knowledge and machines, how does that relate to lady Athena and lord Hephaestus? I had been wondering about this since we first met."

Korban sat down and the lord of knowledge answered, "Ah, that long. Well, it is good you had not asked until now. We did not know then or even yesterday when we last saw the other. Now though, it seems we share those domains with them. We share a resonance."

"Oh? That is… good? Is it not?" the man smiled slightly at the robes.

"Perhaps… but as much as we enjoy your company, and wish to help you understand. We did have a reason for coming here." this made the older man frown before nodding. "You see when we left yesterday we went north, as we were travelling we came across Athens." this immediately caught Korban's attention even further.

"You did? Where were you going? What does this have to do with coming to me?"

"We were seeking answers, as for what it has to do with you. Since we were close we entered the city and explored the temples at the city's center. Inside the temple of Athena, we saw many things but we also met a priest of your order."

"You did? What was their name?" Korban was excited now. Even if it was subdued.

"We asked if he knew you, and introduced ourselves as your friend, as it seemed the most appropriate. His name was, and we suppose is Aegis. After speaking with him for a short time he gave us this. To be given to you." they lord all machines retrieved the blue stone with the owl on it from.

Korban's eyes locked onto the stone and reached out to take it. Once it was closer to him the priest smiled fondly at the object. "Ah thank you Omnissiah this means a lot to me. I am afraid I don't have much to give you as a gift for xenia as your host." his tone was light and stayed so, "Ah, what bad luck I have. I have a god in my home and I even knew that. Yet I thought not to prepare a gift. Zeus have mercy on this one."

The deity paused, "Xenia? This word sounds familiar. But the word doesn't seem to have a word parallel we are familiar with."

Korban seemed to snap from his humour and spoke, "Oh? Oh… well, I shall have to explain much of our culture to you then."


AN: Finals….. Sorry if this chapter didn't progress us very far but I thought it was important to see how Tritia would react to this ash crumb trail. Reviews are read and appreciated, seriously.